Send That Rainbow to Me
by JoBethMegAmy. my homegirls
Summary: After a summer apart, Jane drops by for a surprise visit during her girlfriend Maura's first month of college. And apparently stays forever because I couldn't keep this to the oneshot I originally envisioned. A series of fluff! DISCONTINUED for the time-being...AKA PLEASE STOP ASKING ME WHEN IT'S GOING TO UPDATE. I'M TRULY SORRY, BUT PLEASE STOP.
1. Flower Delivery

**A/N**: I woke up with this idea in my head and could not get rid of it. So here it is! Just a fun little fluffy AU oneshot. I guess I needed to do this because my western AU is so sexually frustrated right now, haha. I think I might discontinue it. (...April Fools.) Happy reading! :)  
><strong>updated AN**: Okay, so obviously this has gone beyond the realm of one-shots, and **here's what you should know before starting this**: if you want to read about Rizzles sex, go elsewhere. It's not in this story, because that's just not something I wanted to include in this one. If that's going to be a problem for you, I'd point you back to probably 98% of the Rizzles archive on this site. Happy reading there! Furthermore, if the thought of teenagers being in a relationship but not having sex is too impossible for you to comprehend in your experience, I'll just say suspend your disbelief, then. This has the tropes of a 1990s, Corey and Topanga kind of world.  
>Lastly, some people have (rather fairly, in retrospect) pointed out that Jane and Maura are kind of OOC in this story, and most of the complaints rise from their attitudes about sex. If I could go back, I'd just omit all the references to virginity in the first place, but instead, this is what we've got. When this was just a one-shot, even a two-shot, I thought it was sort of a feasible AU for them, but I understand the frustration in them not being totally related to how they are on the show. While I tried to throw in references to the show, their future professions, and hobbiesquirks that are true to the canon setting, it's really just as easy to believe these characters aren't R&I. And I totally understand if that's not your thing.

Just wanted to let y'all know what you're in for!

* * *

><p>Maura Isles was kind of a weird roommate.<p>

She had been the last of four suitemates to arrive at BCU, and she came alone—no parents, no siblings, no pals, no boyfriend to drop her off. Kind of sad, really. Once the semester started, she kept mostly to herself, studying obsessively and turning down nearly all invitations to go out. Her suitemates, Rachel, Stacey, and Amber, knew very little about her. They had suspected right off the bat that something might be odd about Maura because she—_gasp—_didn't have a facebook. This meant stalking her was out of the question. What they did know was that while strange, Maura was very sweet. A little naïve perhaps, and still sort of bizarre, but a nice girl. It didn't seem as though she were inordinately uninterested in the lives of her roommates; she would engage politely in conversation with them when it seemed the courteous thing to do, and she thought they were nice girls as well.

About four weeks into the semester, Rachel came home to find the suite smelling of every air freshener known to mankind, possibly mixed with baking soda or vinegar. "Geez!" she groaned, her voice muffled as she covered her mouth and nose. Looking over at Stacey, who was calmly sitting on the couch with a magazine, Rachel gasped, "What is that _smell?_"

"Trust me, it's a lot better now than it was about twenty minutes ago."

"Easy for you to say," Rachel groaned, stumbling over and sitting on the other end of the couch. "You've been sitting it in it! What were you trying to cover up?"

"I came home and Maura was boiling a squirrel."

"_What?_"

"Wait, I should explain. She found the remains of a squirrel by the parking lot and apparently it was mostly bone, so she decided to come home and boil everything down to just the bones." Stacey laughed softly, tossing the magazine onto their coffee table. "It was totally nasty, but she got all excited about it and didn't seem to have any clue why somebody might possibly find it disgusting. It's a good thing we're nice, you know. Otherwise I might start thinking she was a serial killer."

"Dude, all I can say is she's lucky she's as pretty as she is."

"Oh, that reminds me. You know Danny? Jack's roommate? He's coming to the game tonight and he keeps asking me about Maura. As in, I'm pretty sure he likes her. You think she'll come tonight?"

Rachel shrugged. "Probably. Have you noticed sports games are the only times she'll ever leave the apartment, outside of cl…" Her eyes narrowed. "Wait. Where's Maura right now?"

"Taking the squirrel bones to her biology professor. She should be back any minute n—"

Stacey abruptly cut off when they heard keys jangling in the lock, and lo and behold, Maura walked inside. She was on the phone and merely waved to her roommates as she strode across their modestly-sized living room towards the room she shared with Rachel. Before closing the door after herself, she giggled in a girlish manner that neither Rachel nor Stacey had ever heard her come even close to using. "I can't wait!" And the door snapped shut.

Typically Maura wasn't a very shy or private person, so Rachel always respected it when Maura felt moved to shut their door. "I dunno who she thinks she's fooling," Rachel muttered to Stacey. "I mean she insists she doesn't have a boyfriend, but then always gets _that _look on her face when she's on the phone with someone."

"Well, this is weird. Why wouldn't she just tell us?"

"I don't know. Maybe she doesn't feel comfortable enough around us to tell us stuff?"

"But that's flat-out lying. She said she couldn't lie, remember?"

"Hm…Maura Isles: mystery."

"Mystery."

Things became somewhat less mysterious that night when a knock came at the door. All three of the girls in the suite had remained in exactly the same place since that afternoon: Maura was still in her room with three textbooks open, having turned down Rachel and Stacey's invitation to watch an ongoing marathon of _Friends_. They'd had no intention of getting off the couch until going to the game, which they hadn't planned on going to for another hour. So they were a bit surprised when the knock came, wondering if one of their friends had gotten the time wrong and come over early. As the loser of a quick round of rock-paper-scissors, Rachel went to open the door. The person there was not one of their friends, but a tall, tanned brunette Rachel knew she had never seen before.

The girl sported a Red Sox baseball cap, a black T-shirt, and a pair of denim shorts that equaled her red Converse in terms of wear. She was holding a gorgeous bouquet of flowers, and when Rachel raised her eyebrows inquisitively, said in a deep voice, "Floral delivery for Maura Isles! Is this her apartment?"

"Uh—yeah, come right in," Rachel said, opening the door a bit wider to admit her. "I'll just go get her."

As she shuffled back to her room to tell Maura to come to the door, the girl with the flowers smiled politely at Stacey, who was thinking to herself that she had never seen a delivery girl dressed so casually. They exchanged a polite smile, and the newcomer nodded at the TV and said, "So… is this the one where Chandler—"

"JANE!"

Stacey and Jane were spared the pain of small talk when Maura opened her bedroom door and nearly knocked Rachel over as she made a beeline for the tall pretty girl with the flowers. To say that this was the most enthusiastic and spectacularly happy Maura's roommates had ever seen her would be a vast understatement—and her excitement was clearly reciprocated by Jane, whose face broke into a wide grin at the sight of Maura running towards her. When it quickly dawned on her that a hug wasn't going to suffice, Jane hurriedly twisted her cap backwards to get the visor out of her face (a bit of a clumsy feat, as her hair was pulled back into a high ponytail) and the flowers fell out of her hands as Maura quite literally jumped into her arms.

Rachel had her suspicions the moment it Maura had recognized the flower girl, but Stacey hadn't thought anything more than "aw, how sweet that she's got a such a close friend" until Maura wrapped her legs around Jane's waist and started peppering her face with kisses. Normally Jane might have felt a bit embarrassed showing such obvious affection in front of people she had never met, but she was too happy to see Maura to be even close to caring. One arm held Maura securely around the back, pressing their bodies tightly together, while the other unashamedly clung to her ass, which had the double benefit of keeping Maura up while also letting Jane cop a feel. Stacey and Rachel exchanged incredulous looks, and the latter looked as though she was only just barely holding in a fit of hysterical laughter.

Once she had kissed every inch of Jane's neck and face with the exception of her lips, Maura finally planted a long, unbridled one on Jane's mouth, the intensity of which would have left no doubt as to these girls' relationship in the mind of even the most ignorant of slow people. Clearly lacking any self-consciousness about this action, Maura finally broke off the kiss and turned to face her roommates, who were sitting silently on the couch as if waiting for their cue to leave.

"Rachel, Stacey, this is Jane," Maura said breathlessly.

"Hi," the girls chorused, Rachel waving slightly.

With her hands full of Maura, Jane could only nod and grin. "Hey. Nice to meet you guys. Maura's told me a lot about you." Before Rachel or Stacey could come up with an appropriate response (as Maura had never told them anything about this person), Jane looked back at Maura and said, "Hey, which one's your room? You were gonna show me the painting your mother sent you."

"Oh right," Maura said. "It's the first one—you may have seen me running out of it about forty-five seconds ago."

"Oh yeah," Jane chuckled, shifting her arm down to also cup Maura's ass, and she started heading back. "Don't worry," she said over her shoulder to the girls on the couch. "We'll keep it PG-13, I swear."

Rachel sat up slightly when her and Maura's bedroom door was kicked closed by Jane. "Wait, people can have sex in PG-13 movies, right?"

"Oy vey, Rach."

"Welcome to college, I guess," Rachel laughed. "Okay, but wow. Did you see this coming? Because I definitely did not. I mean… wow! I can't believe Maura's gay!"

"Do you think she didn't say anything 'cause Amber's a Republican?" Stacey guessed.

"I dunno. Poor Danny's gonna be disappointed, though." She smirked at Stacey, who started to laugh, and they whisper-yelled an "_ohhhhh!_" of delayed understanding. "Wow, we're stupid."

As soon as Jane had shut Maura's bedroom door, she had turned and pressed the girl up against it, kissing her hungrily, possessively. Maura felt beyond feverish, her legs tightening involuntarily around Jane's waist as Jane pounded her mercilessly into the door (which, for the record, did not go unnoticed by the girls in the living room. Stacey silently turned up the volume on the TV). It was fairly unusual for Jane to get this primal, which got Maura to expect some rough treatment. So she was a tad disappointed but not entirely surprised when Jane backed off relatively quickly. They were both breathing deeply, feeling winded as Jane finally slacked her grip and allowed Maura's feet to touch the floor again.

"Baby, I missed you," she whispered, stroking one hand through Maura's golden hair.

Maura adored the way Jane looked at her in times like this: it was a tender, reverent, absolutely loving look which was the one reason Maura had finally buckled down and gotten a Skype account. A Rizzoli family trip to Italy had kept Jane and Maura separated since the week after graduation until, well, today. The reason behind the trip was that Jane's cousin Gianna had gotten married to a good old Italian boy in Rome during September, and after offering to pay her own way, Jane was allowed to go. After much debate, Frank and Angela decided to splurge and make it their first family vacation. It helped that Frankie covered nearly half his own ticket, and that they had family to stay with in the mother country. Heretofore skimping grandparents also chipped in on the expenses as Jane's graduation present, happy to have her explore her roots a bit.

Angela did not regret her decision when she saw Jane and Maura pouring over art history and guide books, with Maura excitedly telling Jane about everything she'd seen in Italy and what all she thought Jane and her family would appreciate. They had asked Maura if she'd like to come along, as she had been before and would love to go again, but she had already been accepted to a high-profile summer internship Jane refused to allow her to pass up. So instead, they had a tearful (chaste) goodbye at the airport with the promise to Skype as much as possible. The time change presented a bit of a problem, but they usually worked it out by having Jane call late in the evening her time. The museums in Italy held some of the most famously beautiful artworks of all time, and Maura had seen many of them. But she did not think she had ever seen anything as gorgeous as the sight of Jane, utterly relaxed, sitting against a pure Italian landscape with that goofy smile on her face.

"I still can't believe you missed the first two weeks of your college career," Maura chuckled, leading Jane to the bed to sit down.

"It's not my 'college career,'" Jane scoffed. "It's thirteenth grade. We started two weeks behind your school probably just so the Dean of Admissions could spend some extra time with his mistress in Cambridge before coming back. Anyway, enough about that." She smiled and pulled Maura onto her lap. "Did you miss me?"

"You mean in spite of our daily conversations? Yes, I missed you terribly," Maura whispered, tracing a line from Jane's temple to the curve of her jaw. She gently left a kiss there, then trailed her lips over to Jane's ear, breathing directly into it as she spoke: "I missed getting to touch you and feel your arms around me." To emphasize this, she let one hand trail down to Jane's waist, slipping her hand beneath Jane's shirt and stroking the hard abs she had missed so much.

A happy moan escaped Jane at the contact and she kissed Maura, giggling into it. Having Maura touch her there reminded her of one of the conversations they'd had that summer, where Jane had shared in jubilant disgust her shock at the way Michelangelo frequently depicted women: manly, and frighteningly buff. It had led Maura to joke that Jane was simply a leaner version of these Thor-like women, as her carefully defined musculature would not lend itself well the ideal female beauty captured by the feminine statues in those museums.

"Grainy Skype images don't become you," Maura purred, now letting the fingers of her other hand ghost across the seriously tanned skin of Jane's legs. She smirked as she felt Jane's breath hitch, and she rubbed her thumb in small circles dangerously close to one of Jane's thighs. "You must have gotten a lot of sun over there. You look _incredibly _hot." The last word was again just a breath, issued over Jane's lips before Maura went in for another deep kiss. Her tongue swept into Jane's mouth, and neither of them could believe they had gone so many months without this feeling. After a few tortuously good minutes of this, Maura broke off and murmured, "Aren't you forgetting something?"

"A…condom?" Jane asked.

"Idiot," Maura chuckled. "I told you how good you look…"

"Oh, right. Bad girlfriend, sorry." Jane grinned and stroked Maura's cheek with the back of her hand before settling her fingers at the nape of her lovely neck. "You are my Venus, you know that, Maura? The whole time I was in Italy—I mean, don't get me wrong, it was awesome—but I always went to bed thinking about you and woke up thinking about you. Er… not in like, a dirty way," she quickly clarified, and Maura smiled kindly to show that she understood. "Just in a I-wish-I-could-be-with-you sort of way."

"Maybe someday we can go to Italy together," Maura said.

Jane's grin widened. "I'd like that. And hey, Gianna's gonna live there now, so we'd have a free place to stay, right in Rome! You'd really like her, too. She tried to make me watch _Project Runway _about eighty times."

"Ooh, you're right, I like her already!" Maura laughed, shifting off Jane's lap.

Now that they were in a somewhat less intimate position, Jane nodded at the closed door and said, "Where's your other roommate? Amber?"

"Oh, she's at work."

"Mm. So… they seemed surprised. Rachel and Stacey, I mean."

"Well _I _was surprised! I wasn't expecting you until tomorrow!"

Jane blushed. "I couldn't wait until tomorrow. We got home and I just drove right over here; my luggage is still in the car."

"Oh, that explains why you smell so…" Maura caught herself at Jane's arched eyebrow. "So, uh, Italian!"

"Thank you. Did you not tell them about us? Your roommates?"

Maura frowned thoughtfully. "It just never came up."

"Really? You mean none of them sized you up and said, 'Hey, you must be a lesbian! Tell us all about your girlfriend!'"

Her tone wasn't angry or hurt, but it did sound vaguely annoyed. Maura tried her best to explain: "I'm sorry, Jane, I hope you aren't offended. It wasn't my intention to _hide _anything from them. I mean, you saw how I reacted when you got here! They were right there! But it was awful coming here alone, Jane. I missed you so much that I…" She took a deep breath to steady herself, hating how pathetic she knew she sounded. "I cried for the first several nights. Rachel never got back until late, so I had the room to myself and I would just …cry for you."

Jane put an arm around her. "Sweetie, why didn't you tell me?"

"I didn't want you to feel bad," Maura answered, trembling. "I wanted you to have fun on your trip, and not worry about me. I am not upset that you were gone, Jane, I just _missed_ you, so much! I've never had an easy time of it when it comes to making friends, so I focused on getting schoolwork done and reading the journals I've subscribed to. My roommates have all been very good about it, but I know I sort of mystify them. I don't eat with them very often or engage in conversation very often. Usually I'd go to games with them because watching sports always makes me think of you, and it… it sort of felt like being with you, in a way."

This sentiment was incredibly moving, and Jane tightened her grip on Maura's shoulder. "So you were at sports games and I was at museums. Real _Freaky Friday _kind of moment, huh?"

"Freaky summer, more like," Maura chuckled. "Anyway, they—I guess they would maybe hint about guys they thought liked me, or thought I should date, but I always brushed them off …now that I think about it, I may never have fully explained why. It never came up that strongly; we don't talk much. I didn't feel comfortable indulging stuff like that to them." She shrugged. "And I hope you don't think I'm a coward, Jane, but Amber's fairly conservative, and, well…"

Jane sighed—she had had her own number of angry encounters with conservative people and wanted to spare Maura as much of that pain as possible. "I don't think you're a coward, Maura. But if she'd been home just now, do you think you'd still have attacked me at the door like you did?"

Maura turned to look into those bottomless brown eyes, and smiled weakly. "Oh, I think I would have. You're too irresistible in person, Jane."

"Well thank you, then," Jane chuckled. "Now that you're effectively out to at least two of your roomies, let's go somewhere. Nothing that'll take too long, though, 'cause I have to admit I'm incredibly tired right now."

A yawn nearly cut off her speech, and Maura smiled. "Well, we were going to go to a game, but I have something better in mind. There's an ABC party tomorrow being thrown by Rachel's sister's sorority, and we were invited. I wasn't going to go, but if you'd like to come with me and shop for a proper outfit…"

Though she hated shopping for herself, Jane always loved the private fashion shows that accompanied any trip to the mall with Maura. "Sure, let's do it. What's an ABC party?"

"It stands for Anything But Clothes," Maura said with a devilish grin. "Let's make it a _Project Runway_ challenge, Jane. We'll go to a market or something and whatever you buy, we'll have to make outfits out of. Deal?"

"Oh, it's on," Jane growled, pulling Maura in for another kiss before getting to her feet. "Shall we?"

Hand in hand, they walked back out of the bedroom, apparently taking Rachel and Stacey off guard yet again. "Girls, I'm afraid I haven't been entirely forthright about something," Maura said. "This is my girlfriend, Jane Rizzoli. She's been gone all summer, and I was sort of, well, miserable about it, so I haven't been my usual self these last few weeks. I apologize."

"Hey, no apologies necessary," Rachel said as Stacey shrugged. "Separations suck."

"Jane's going to be a cop," Maura couldn't help adding."

"Ooh! Well, I feel a lot safer being your roommate now," Stacey laughed. "You guys goin' out?"

"Yes, there's an ABC party that needs planning," Jane chuckled. "I'll probably see you guys around—I plan on coming by—"

"—every weekend to make up for your summer absence?" Maura pushed her.

"To start, at least," Jane said, turning her Red Sox cap the right way around again and holding the door open for Maura. "Oh, do what you want with those flowers, by the way. Just…" She sighed. "Don't put them anywhere near that Yankees poster, all right? I don't think I could take it."

Stacey glanced over her shoulder at Amber's poster. "No problem. Have fun!"

As soon as Jane and Maura left, Rachel and Stacey immediately resumed their light-hearted gossip and speculation. They couldn't wait for Maura to come back so they could interrogate her in person—she seemed almost like an entirely different person, she was so cheerful. Their conversation was interrupted only when Amber finally came back home, looking shell-shocked.

"Dude, you okay?" Rachel asked.

"Uh…I just saw Maura and her…girlfriend?" Amber said slowly.

"Yeah, so what?" Stacey asked, preparing to get defensive on Maura's behalf.

"She's a… she's with a…" Amber could hardly speak for her disgust.

"Girl...?"

"No! A _Red Sox _fan!"

* * *

><p><strong>AN**: reviews are the best! :)


	2. Operation Facebook Stalk

**A/N**: If you want to get ahead in life, don't sit in the back of your classrooms. It makes it too easy to write fanfiction instead of paying attention. That said, I was not expecting the response that I got to this oneshot, so I've decided, screw it. I'm gonna write more. I realized that my Western and my Crossover are both too angsty and prolonging the Rizzles, and even in my other R&I fanfic, I adhered too close to the show to really have fun. So I need an outlet like this! p.s. GO YANKEES!

* * *

><p>Naturally the moment Jane and Maura had left, Stacey pulled up her laptop and went to facebook. <em>Friends <em>remained on unnoticed in the background as the three girls huddled around Stacey's computer to facebook stalk Jane Rizzoli, and also hopefully learn more about Maura in the process.

"Oh, good Lord," Rachel gasped when they'd found the profile. "She is _hot_."

"If _I_ were a lesbian, I wouldn't kick her out of bed," Amber concurred.

Jane's profile picture consisted of her and Frankie making ridiculous flexing poses outside of the Coliseum, mimicking ancient statues. She was wearing a loose tank-top and very short denim cut-offs, effectively showing off much of her hard, angular physique. The picture had been uploaded just a week ago, with the caption, "_Maura wanted to see what I've been up to in Italy. This is the picture I emailed her. Expect this profile pic to change when we are reunited (:_ _Can't wait!_"

"Can we see the rest of the album?" Rachel asked. "I'm curious…"

Stacey instantly acquiesced, and just by searching through Jane's numerous profile pictures, the girls were indeed able to learn and understand more about Maura than they had in the last four weeks. For instance, they now understood why Maura had made an effort to accompany them to sports games —a number of the photos showed Jane engaging in various athletic activities: jumping a hurdle, spinning a basketball on her finger, standing in a soccer goal looking very bored, and being tackled by her uncle in a Thanksgiving football game. But more endearing (at least for Maura's voyeuristic roommates) were the ones in which Maura was also included: Jane and Maura dressed for a tennis game at a country club; a celebratory hug after a Powderpuff victory in which Jane had scored the final touchdown; Jane winking at the camera as she stood behind Maura, "helping" her with her billiards stance; a shot of them at a Celtics game, where Jane and the boy tagged next to her, Barry Frost, were leaping out of their seats in excitement while Maura had her eyes buried in _Properties of Quantum Mechanics_.

This was to say nothing of the pictures that weren't sports-related. A picture from last Halloween showed them dressed as a doctor and a detective, with Jane suggestively holding Maura's wrist in one hand and a pair of cuffs in the other. Another, captioned _"finals week…_" captured Jane mid-sit-up, a textbook propped up in her lap as Maura held her feet, studying another book lying against Jane's legs. Yet another showed the girls lying on their stomachs, smiling at each other, a tortoise on Maura's right and a mangy-looking puppy on Jane's back.

The most recent photo before the Coliseum one was actually mostly of Maura, as it had been taken from Skype. She was blowing a kiss, and in the bottom right corner, Jane mimed catching it (_"left my heart in Boston ): miss my girl"_). The next non-Italy picture had been taken at graduation, with Maura basically piggy-backing Jane, waving her hat in the air like a cowgirl while Jane was bent over, laughing (_"the Valedictorian felt that her certificate, ten minute speech, and special medal thingy weren't enough validation for her work, so she also got to be carried around for the day by her personal, very willing slave"_).

As if these weren't obnoxiously adorable enough, the next picture was the only one in the album where Jane and Maura were actually kissing. Maura was wearing a gorgeous red dress that was bold enough in color to distract one from noticing how modest it was (although it did nicely accentuate her waist and chest). For her part, Jane was fitted very nicely in a tux and red tie to match Maura's dress. Jane's dark hair fell smoothly down her back, while Maura's was elegantly pulled up and away from her face, giving her a very fresh look. Both were smiling into their chaste kiss, and Maura had lifted one hand to cup Jane's cheek. They were also both wearing cheap crowns, and according to the caption _"of course two seconds after this picture was taken, Maura's crown got stuck on mine and it took the other prom king five minutes to figure out how to separate us again." _ This picture had a ton of comments, the first of which was from Frost: "_hey, I was doing the best I could! p.s. let's hear it for the PC prom police!" _Jane's response: "_YEAH! gay people and black people exist! And they can be royalty!" _(What followed, interspersed between other supportive comments, was a running dialogue between Jane and Frost that was basically a series of all-capitalized variations of "yahoo" or "in it to win it," with increasing numbers of exclamation points.)

"Can we look at something else?" Rachel asked. "If we study any more of these pictures, I swear I'm going to get cavities."

"Too sweet?" Stacey chuckled. "Yeah, it's kind of gross."

"Are there any videos of her?" Amber asked. "I'd love to hear that voice again. That's the kind of voice I've always wanted."

"It _was _pretty sexy," Stacey agreed. "Even if she only got it by screaming herself hoarse in support of the Red Sox."

Amber snorted. "You'd _have _to scream yourself hoarse. In frustration. Because your team sucks butt. Ooh! Let's look at that one!" she said, pointing to a video called "_Two girls and a shooting range_," which had been filmed and uploaded by Frost in June.

_The video began with Jane and Maura standing anxiously close, headphones still slung around their necks as Jane carefully handed over the gun they had chosen. "Now don't touch the trigger until you're actually ready to shoot," she said._

_A voice from behind the camera spoke up: "Jane, talk louder. We can hardly hear you!"_

_The girls looked up, Jane laughing and Maura frowning. "Barry, don't film this, please!" Maura said. _

"_What—why not?"_

"_Because I'm going to make a fool of myself, and I'd rather there not be cinematographic evidence of it."_

_Jane waved dismissively. "Yeah, Frost, don't be a jerk." But when Maura looked back down, Jane grinned and winked at Frost, motioning for him to keep going as she and Maura covered their ears with the protective gear. Raising her voice over the sounds of gunfire that surrounded them, Jane continued to instruct Maura: "Grip it like this, take your left hand there… now point it."_

"Oh, she's good," Rachel sniggered, watching Jane's fingers carefully guide Maura's as to where they ought to go.

_"Loosen up a bit, babe, okay?" Jane said, gently pinching Maura's taut, strained arms. "Push and pull. Just push and pull, with equal amount of force." _

_ "Like this?" Maura asked nervously. _

_ "Yeah, yeah. You're good." Jane chuckled and patted Maura on the back, now totally forgetting that Frost was even there. "You look good!" _

_ "Do I look badass?" Maura asked, turning to look at Jane with a feigned serious expression on her face._

_ "Yeah," Jane laughed. "You look like a badass. Whenever you're ready, take a shot."_

_ It took Maura quite a few moments to line herself up (Frost briefly moved the camera over to his watch), then braced herself and fired a bullet. She couldn't keep in a surprised yelp, which in turn made Jane jump, which elicited a loud bark of laughter from Frost, reminding the girls of his presence. Maura was too amused by his and Jane's reactions to be upset that he was still filming her. They quickly encouraged her, saying it was very good for a first shot, and so she braved taking a few more despite the fact that her whole body jumped every time she fired one._

_ When the target—a human outline—was brought forward for their evaluation, Jane said, "Oh, yeah, Maura. You're definitely going into the wrong business. Forget medicine. You should become a henchman for movie bad guys." She pointed to the bullet holes, which were mostly on the target's arm and shoulders if on the outline at all. "You know, the ones who can never hit the hero, based simply on the fact that they're anonymous henchmen?"_

_Her cheek earned her a slap on the shoulder, and Maura insisted on trying again. As a new target was being put up, Jane said, "Watch your aim," which admittedly wasn't very helpful. She looked at the camera, and apparently Frost mouthed something to her, because Jane smiled conspiringly and nodded. When Maura was about to make her shot, Jane pinched her butt. _

_Maura jumped badly, but Frost's idea had worked and the jump actually put her shot more on target. However, she was unwilling to subject herself to that on camera again, and suggested Jane have a go at it._

"_Yeah, really," Frost said. "Let's end this movie with __some__ kind of dignity, please." _

"_Shut up, Barry," Maura said as Jane unzipped her sweater. "Oh geez, Jane, really? You are so cheesy…"_

"_Wait?" Jane laughed, shrugging off the sweater, which left her in only a tight black tank-top. "I thought you wanted to see the gun show." _

_Frost laughed and Maura just rolled her eyes, ignoring Jane as she flexed briefly for the camera. But then she got all business, assuming a very serious expression and a stance that clearly dictated she was much more practiced in this area than Maura. Any idea that she might have been merely posing was eradicated immediately when she fired six shots in a row, each of them hitting the very center of the target or just around it. Frost whistled as Maura went into exaggerated motions of fangirling, fanning herself and squealing "Oh, my gosh!" Jane casually shrugged and attempted a look of nonchalance until Maura threw her arms around her and gave her a very loud kiss on the cheek (Jane couldn't keep herself from grinning at that)._

"_Whoa, I will never cross you again, Jane!" Frost laughed._

"_Yeah, son!" Jane shouted, now directly addressing the camera. "Y'all had better watch your backs!" She was feigning an angry, thug-life expression, which was difficult for a viewer to take seriously when Maura was on her arm, also attempting to do the same thing and failing to do anything but look cheek-pinchingly adorable. Jane waved the gun. "Yo! Maura's future roommates! You'd better watch yourselves, because if any of you ever give my girl a hard time, I will not hesitate to bust a cap in yo' asses!"_

"_Word!" Maura shouted. "Wait, 'word'? Was that correct usage of the slang?"_

"_Yes, hon."_

_The camera was shaking because Frost was laughing so hard. Comprehension suddenly dawned on Maura's face: "Oh, wait! Bust a cap? Does that refer to shooting a gun?"_

"_Yes…"_

"_Ohhh! I always thought it referred to breaking someone's knees." They had started walking away, and Jane and Frost were laughing hysterically. The last thing caught on film was Maura looking at Frost over her shoulder and saying in utmost seriousness, "Barry, don't put this on facebook." _

While Amber pondered aloud whether Jane had thought Maura's roommates would actually see this video, Stacey and Rachel scanned the dozens of comments that had been left (their favorites being a limerick about Jane's biceps written by someone named Joe Grant, and one that had been written by Maura in Jane's account where she called Jane and Frost "a pair of thoughtless hooligans" and added, "I am glad so many people found this video edifying. You're welcome for letting Barry post it!"). But before the girls could do much more stalking, a knock at the door signaled their friends arriving to take them to the game.

It was only nine-thirty when Jane and Maura returned to the suite, but Jane was about ready to pass out from tiredness. Jet lag combined with a long flight and the time change had taken its toll, and Maura insisted she stay and sleep on the couch. She had been so tired that she actually let Maura drive them back, which was a huge deal because she did not like anyone else driving her car. Unbeknownst to Jane, Maura called Angela to let her know what was up but had to leave a message, because nobody in the Rizzoli house would be conscious for nearly another twelve hours. As soon as they were inside, Jane kicked off her shoes and collapsed onto the sofa, mumbling that she just needed to close her eyes for a few minutes and she'd be good to go.

Maura just smiled and shook her head, taking their shopping bags into her room. Making outfits from the materials they chose was going to be a fairly interesting undertaking: aluminum foil, plastic wrap, trash bags and _OK! _magazine were the easy choices. But they had also picked out some mint-flavored dental floss, corn on the cob, ice cream cones, cupcake holders, and glitter. It had been fun picking things out and coming up with some ideas for outfits, but as she stood in the doorway of her room and looked at her girlfriend sprawled out on the couch, Maura had to wonder if Jane would be up to going.

After another few moments of looking thoughtfully at Jane, Maura decided that so long as they would both be there tonight (there was no way Jane would be awake enough to drive, no matter what she thought), they might as well sleep together. So she quickly ran a toothbrush through her mouth and changed into an old pair of silk pajamas, knowing Jane loved how they felt. Walking back into the living room, she knew it would probably be too much of a fight to drag Jane back to her bedroom, and besides, it probably wouldn't be very considerate without asking Rachel if she'd feel awkward about it.

So, Maura walked over to the couch and lifted Jane by the shoulders, earning a tired groan. "Sh, it's okay," she whispered, sitting down and gently lowering Jane down onto her lap.

"Hey, Maura?" she asked in a gravelly voice, eyes still closed.

"Yes?"

"Mm…can I sleep here tonight?"

Maura gingerly took off Jane's Red Sox cap and kissed her forehead. "That was the plan all along, silly." She next reached for Jane's hair tie and pulled it out, letting it rest around her own wrist as she threaded her fingers through Jane's newly freed hair. A soft, satisfied sound escaped Jane's lips at these actions, and she managed to lift one arm and lay it across Maura's legs, reaching for her waist. "You're too tired to drive all the way back home," Maura whispered. "And besides, I haven't seen you in three months and four days. I can't possibly say goodbye to you when we've only been together again for an hour and forty-five minutes.

"Yeah," Jane sighed. "Don't leave."

"This is my suite…"

"I mean don't leave the couch yet."

"I won't. But would you…would you mind if I lay down a bit?"

"Hm? No."

With Jane's permission, Maura shifted so that she was leaning against the pillows on the arm of the couch. Jane was now essentially lying on top of her, nearly covering her like a warm and heavy human blanket. "Jane?"

"Hm?"

"I love you."

At this, Jane finally, blearily opened her eyes. It was a saying that had exchanged fairly often before, but something in Maura's tone and the look on her face almost made it feel as though this were the first time she had ever said it, the most important time. Jane leaned up enough to give Maura a short kiss. "I love you, Maura." Despite her unbelievable exhaustion, she infused the words with as much emotion as she could, desperate to communicate her sincerity. She missed the broad smile on Maura's face as she closed her eyes again, resting her cheek on Maura's shoulder.

A minute or two passed, and Maura ascertained that Jane was fully asleep. Her full weight was now resting on Maura, and she did not respond to the soft whisper of her name. For a moment Maura toyed with the idea of turning on the television—something low-key and quiet, an old movie—but dismissed It quickly. She was sure the noise wouldn't disturb Jane, but it _would_ disturb the atmosphere they had established. Maura didn't want anything distracting her from the sound of Jane's breathing, the feel of her body against Maura's, even that faint airplane smell that still remained. These were things you couldn't get through a Skype or a phone call; they required intimacy, and Maura did not want it interrupted for as long as possible. She shifted her position slightly again, so that Jane was mostly lying next to her and not on top of her, although an arm was still slung over her, and her face remained buried next to Maura's neck. From here, it was easier to reach the purse she had discarded on the floor earlier, which had her phone inside it.

It took some effort, but Maura was eventually able to pull the purse over and by one of its handles and fish her phone out of it. After playing briefly with the settings, she held it up high and grinned, snapping a photo. Going into Jane's facebook account (password: _Bass Friday_), she posted it as Jane's new profile picture.

So the next time her roommates decided to stalk Jane Rizzoli, the picture they would see would be of Jane and Maura lying on their couch, with Jane clearly asleep and snuggled into Maura, who was smiling like a fool. Caption: _Reunited, and it feels so good :) _

* * *

><p><strong>AN**: I can't promise steady updates with this (another Calamity Jane chapter is halfway through), so set an alert if this is something you'd be interested in reading more of. Thanks for the support, guys! **Also**: I will be changing the title of this probably later tonight, haha. I was in a rush to post it yesterday, so I didn't really have time to give it a title I liked (it was inspired by what was playing on my iTunes at the time, which is a song by the Ronettes and should be listened to and loved by everybody. I actually thought it'd be cute to put an R&I vid to, with Maura pursuing Jane...hm... I should get on that!)


	3. First Kiss

**A/N**: Thanks for the supportive reviews, y'all! This is such fun to write. (By the way, if you're at all curious about the new title for this story, I recommend checking out one of the funniest movies of all time, _Gentlemen Prefer Blondes_. At the very least, go to youtube and search for the song from it called "Bye, Bye Baby" performed by Jane Russell. There's a lyric that goes "I'll be gloomy/but send that rainbow to me/then my shadows will fly!" and basically it's a movie that should be seen by everyone. Everywhere.)

* * *

><p>The next morning, it took Maura a few moments to figure out why she had woken up on the couch. Blinking against the harsh daylight coming in through the window, she stretched out and tried to remember how she had wound up out here. A smile crept to her lips as she remembered Jane falling asleep in her arms, but… where was Jane now? Maura sat up and looked around, hoping Jane might be sitting on one of the chairs or at the small table in the kitchen—but no dice. Before she could start to worry about why Jane might have left without saying anything, she spotted a small note on the coffee table that had been written on a piece of notebook paper:<p>

_"Hey, beautiful! I woke up at 5:48 and decided to go for a walk around campus—it's really nice, and particularly peaceful at this time of morning! It's now a quarter to seven and you are still very much asleep, which I can't blame you for. The only reason I won't be here when you wake up is because Ma made me promise that if I was going to spend the weekend with you, I had to unpack first and take care of my chores (the part that bites about living at home). So I figured you might be asleep for a while, and I should go mow the lawn and such before Ma sends me a Howler! By the way, the reason this note is going on so long is because I kind of keep hoping you'll wake up and convince me not to leave yet… I could just wake you, but I'm sure you need your sleep and I don't want to disturb you. Besides, you look so pretty right now. Like a picture. Better than a picture. Call me when you're properly awake and we can discuss weekend plans! I can't wait to talk to you again. And I can't wait to see you in your ABC outfit… ;) Arggh, that was supposed to be a winking face, but it didn't turn out very well. I'm not an artist, but you already knew that. Thanks for loving me anyway. Ciao, bella! – Jane"_

When Maura was halfway through the note, Rachel walked in from her own morning run and started to pour herself a bowl of cereal. It was half past nine, and Maura couldn't believe she had only just woken up. _I must have been sleeping really well_. As she finished the note, Rachel came to sit in one of the chairs by the sofa, and couldn't contain a snort of laughter.

"What is it?" Maura asked, looking up.

Waving a spoon in Maura's direction, Rachel said, "You have the _hugest _smile on your face right now. Also, don't think we didn't notice you and Jane sleeping on the couch out here."

"Oh, er, sorry…"

"Sorry? For what?"

"It's not very classy, I understand."

"Classy, maybe not. Adorable? Yes. Did she leave you that note?"

"Yes," Maura said with a bashful grin. "She had to duck out early."

"I guess. She wasn't here when I left. Hey so, why didn't you tell us about her? Were you scared to? Because you don't have to be. We're all totally cool with it."

"Really? Even Amber? She seemed a little, uh, uncomfortable when we ran into her last night."

Rachel snorted into her Cheerios. "Yah, because your girlfriend was wearing a Red Sox cap. Honestly, I can't understand why someone who's so into the Yankees would even come to Boston for school, but I guess she has her reasons."

From behind Amber and Stacey's closed door, they heard Amber shout, "Are you talking about me?"

"Unashamedly!" Rachel yelled back. "Hey, shouldn't we not be yelling? It's kind of early and Stacey's probably still asleep."

"Stacey woke me up an hour ago cramming for some stupid test!"

"I'm going to fail, okay?" came Stacey's voice.

"Guys, take a break and come out here!" Rachel called out. "I'm about to interrogate Maura about her ridiculously hot girlfriend!"

At this announcement, Amber and Stacey came barreling out of their room. "You think she's hot?" Maura asked, grinning.

"Um…duh," said Stacey, throwing herself onto the couch next to Maura while Amber brought over a chair from the kitchen. "Even a gay guy would flip for that. Am I right, ladies?"

"How did you guys get together?" Amber asked curiously.

Maura wondered how natural all this sudden curiosity was from her roommates. Were they only interested because she was gay, and it all seemed exotic and foreign? Something to be studied? This was her first cynical idea, but after glimpsing quickly at each of them—Rachel waiting in anticipation with her spoon poised mid-bite, Stacey all but kicking Maura to get her going, and Amber grinning excitedly—Maura concluded that their interest was genuine. "Uh, well, we went to the same high school for the last two years. I lived in Europe until I was seventeen, and then my parents decided to come back to Boston, where my father is from—"

Stacey held up a hand to stop her. "Okay, wait. You grew up in _Europe_? How did we not know this?"

"Another story for another day," Rachel said impatiently. "This is about Jane right now."

"Right," Maura chuckled. "We moved in the summer, I think at the end of June, yes. So school here was out, and Jane was working as a lifeguard at the local pool. Swimming is my favorite form of exercise, so I went there quite often. I couldn't help noticing Jane, though…"

She would never know the extent to which the feeling was mutual – _Jane had just finished telling off a kid for running near the pool when Frost came over to her, smirking. It was about time, too; his break had ended ten minutes ago, but he had been in the parking lot of the pool making out with Anna Ferrell. Before Jane could tell him off for prolonging his own break, he said, "Cool your heels there, Rizzoli. Check it out—blonde with the book by the south side."_

_ Jane nonchalantly slid her sunglasses back over her eyes to cover her stare as she glanced to the southern end of the pool. "Blue bathing suit?"_

_ "Yeah."_

_ Jane unconsciously bit her lip before returning her gaze back to Frost. "What about her?"_

_ "Oh, nothing…except that for the last half an hour, she's been staring at you like you're a cut of steak."_

_ "What? Shut up."_

_ "It's true! Anna and I were at the frozen yogurt stand and Anna said this girl was checking you out. I looked too, and she was right! Dude!" He clapped her on the shoulder. "You gotta go over and talk to her."_

_ "No way, man. You're pulling my leg." Jane had noticed this girl before, and she had definitely been distracting. She was all long beautiful legs, strong arms, and honey-blonde hair that wouldn't have looked out of place in a shampoo commercial. In essence: way out of Jane's league. However, she couldn't help noticing that this girl had been swimming less and less the more she came, just setting up shop with a pool chair and a book, occasionally getting a soda or frozen yogurt. Odd. Unless she was trying to show off for somebody…_

_ "You're thinking about it, I can tell," Frost said. "It's your break. Now's your chance."_

_ "Frost…I'm just barely out, man."_

_ "Psh, around here, maybe. How about that thing with your bunkmate last summer at camp? Jane, this'll be good practice for you. Get your flirt on. Look—if she freaks out or something, I'll owe you, okay? I'll owe you big. Just take that swagger you've got in every sports game and throw it in that girl's direction. You'll blow her bathing suit right off."_

_ Jane shoved her life preserver in Frost's chest and stormed to the locker room. If she was going to talk to this girl, she didn't want to feel quite so naked. She knew it was silly and pretty immature to think about such things, but she never felt fully comfortable baring this much skin off the job—and while technically she was still at work, she wouldn't be working with this girl. She'd be flirting. So she grabbed a pair of black basketball shorts and pulled them up over the lower half of her glaring red bathing suit, studying herself in the full-length mirror for a minute to check out how high she should pull them up. Glancing quickly around and straining her ears, Jane ascertained that she was alone in the locker room. Maybe a pep talk wouldn't be such a bad idea._

_ She folded her arms and winked at her reflection. "Hey, lookin' good, good-lookin'!" Oh geez, no. "Hey, so uh… you come here often?" Oh God, make it stop. "My friend said you were checking me out." Yeah, __that's__ not suspect at all. "Well hi there! You're really hot!" _

_Finally Jane decided she was stressing too much and just needed to go for it. One last move—she pulled her hair out of its tight ponytail and pushed her sunglasses back up onto her forehead, just as the locker room door opened behind her._

"…and so—I hope this doesn't sound creepy—I saw her go into the locker room and I just assumed she was leaving, but I really wanted to follow her. I just had no idea what to say, which I'm sure comes as a huge surprise to all of you! I'm not the best when it comes to initiating social interactions, or even withstanding them. Anyway, a little boy happened to pass by me just then, and he tripped and splashed half an orange soda on me. It wasn't a huge deal, but it was sort of sticky, so I wanted to go into the locker room to wash it off."

Stacey gasped loudly. "And did she ask to practice her CPR moves on you?"

"No," Maura laughed. "That would've been _way _too cheesy for Jane."

"Where was the soda? Was it on your face? On your leg? On your boobs? Did she offer to lick it off for you?" Rachel asked in quick succession.

"Geez, guys, get your minds out of the gutter!" Amber said as Maura just blushed and laughed. "Stop interrupting and let her finish!"

_Jane nearly froze when he realized the girl who had just walked in was the one she was trying to psyche herself up to talk to. Catching her eye in the mirror, Jane turned around and before she had a chance to think, asked, "You leaving?"_

_ "Uh…no," Maura squeaked. "I just, um—a kid spilled some soda on me, and I thought I'd come in and wash it off." As she spoke, she walked over to one of the sinks near Jane, feeling herself blush as she tried to avoid the beautiful brunette's dark eyes. "I probably wouldn't have bothered, but it's making my fingers stick to the pages of my book." _

_ Trying her best to look cool and breezy, Jane casually folded her arms and leaned against the mirror, facing Maura. "A book at the pool, huh? Not a magazine? Must be summer reading, right?"_

_ Maura chuckled and spent more time than was probably necessary with her hands under the icy jet of water. "Well I do typically enjoy reading for pleasure, but this is for school, yes. It's um, Steinbeck's _East of Eden."

"East of—_hey, I'm reading that, too! What school do you go to?"_

_ "Well, I'm…I actually just moved here earlier this month, and thankfully was able to get the summer assignments in time. I'm going to be a junior at Dominic."_

_ Jane grinned, and was relieved when the girl reflected it. "Hey, no way! I'm a junior there, too! Or I mean, I will be. Uh—" She took a step forward and held out her hand. "My name's Jane, Jane Rizzoli."_

_ Shaking Jane's hand with her newly cleaned one, Maura said, "I'm Maura Isles. It's a pleasure to meet you."_

"And did you feel a spark?" Stacey asked, earning a pillow to the back of the head from Amber for daring to interrupt again.

"A…oh, you mean in the figurative sense," Maura said. "You know, I do think we both felt something then. It was…strangely comfortable, her hand in mine. It was calloused, rough …I remember wishing I could hold onto it forever until I could make it smooth again." This cued simultaneous "awww!"s from her roommates before she continued relating the story.

_ "A pleasure, huh?" Jane laughed, not unkindly. "Where'd you transfer from, a finishing school?"_

_ "Not quite. It was an all-girls school outside of Paris."_

_ "Paris—like France?"_

_ "Yes."_

_ "Wow, I…" Jane shook her head in disbelief, smiling broadly. She wasn't sure what it was, but something really drew her to this girl. Oh sure, it could have something to do with her gorgeous face and unnaturally beautiful body (which her swimsuit flattered perfectly), but there was more to it than that. Jane couldn't believe how easy it had been to strike up a conversation with her. Maybe it could be worth her time to step this up a notch… She jabbed her thumb back in the direction of the pool. "Hey, so uh, I'm on my break right now, and I've got some time. New girl in town—I feel like I should buy you a yogurt or something. How about it? You got time?"_

"And we fell in together, just like that," Maura recounted, amused that her roommates were all so captivated. "We talked for her whole break, just about everything—Europe, and Dominic, and _East of Eden _and Boston, and what movies we wanted to see that summer. When she had to get back to work, she asked if I wanted to hang out after her shift, and I said yes."

"Did she take you on a date?" Rachel asked.

"Not quite. We just went to the middle school and played tennis on one of their courts. We didn't actually start dating until October. We were just really good friends—and it was great to have made a friend like Jane before school started, because she made sure I was well taken care of. I mean, well, you all have seen me trying to start new here... I'm not very good at it. Everyone knew Jane, and she made sure they all knew me."

"Okay, so get to the good stuff, then," Stacey pressed her. "When did she kiss you for the first time?"

"Oh, I don't want to bore you guys," Maura said. She glanced uneasily at Amber, even though she had been actively participating in this line of questioning. There was an unspoken idea that Maura was wary of making the girl feel uncomfortable, and Amber picked up on it.

"Look. You don't have to worry; I'm not homophobic, Maura, I swear," Amber said seriously. "I'm not one of those people who's like, _baffled _that someone can be gay. That doesn't weird me out, it doesn't frighten or confuse me. Please believe me when I say that the only thing I find unnatural and confusing about Jane is that she likes the Red Sox."

"Amber," Rachel groaned.

"I'm sorry, but I'm serious! No, really! How can anyone _possibly_ be loyal to a team that—"

"Yo, weren't you the one getting mad at us for sidetracking Maura, dude?" Stacey cut in. "Go on, Maura tell us. First kiss."

"Right—it was at Joey Grant's seventeenth birthday party…"

_For the last couple of months, Maura had been realizing that her attraction to Jane was more than just friendly. Everything about her intrigued and fascinated Maura: her loyalty, her compassion, her eagerness to help the underdog, even the rough exterior she occasionally tried to hide behind. And then of course there was her peerless physique, those deep brown eyes, those dimples that all combined made Maura weak at the knees. Jane never said anything about being gay or even interested in women that way, but Maura could have sworn that now and then, Jane was checking her out. But she was terrified of saying anything in case she had just misread or misinterpreted a simple social more—Jane might laugh at her ignorance, or worse, reject her for these feelings._

_During the last year, Maura had been finding herself more and more attracted to other girls. Guys still intrigued her in their own way, but she was beginning to consider that women could also be an option. Would she just die if Jane didn't return her feelings? Well no, but it would still hurt. Wouldn't they probably be going their separate ways once they graduated? If so, what was the point of dating in high school? It's silly kid stuff. Still… graduation was a full two years away …so much could be done in the space of two years… _

_Joey's birthday was the first big party of the year, and Maura decided to sort of make a compromise with herself: she knew there was going to be alcohol there, and if she had learned anything about herself as a high school student in Europe, it was that she __really__ let loose when she drank. Even if it was just a little, she could become an entirely different person. This could be a good thing, because sometimes it got her out of her comfort zone and gave her the confidence she needed to be more assertive. So if she drank tonight, maybe she could get up the courage to say something to Jane, maybe even act on it. Best case scenario: Jane feels the same way. Worst case scenario: she wouldn't, but Maura could then blame her own actions on the alcohol and laugh it off, and Jane wouldn't feel weird about it. _

_It was a perfect plan, but would require Jane to drink as well—Maura didn't want to drunkenly throw herself at someone who was on a more sober level. She would carefully track Jane's alcohol consumption and always be sure not to exceed her too much._

_The problem was that Jane didn't drink a thing. _

_Maura looked on as Jane turned down offer after offer, opting instead for a small case of soda that was going mostly ignored by everyone else there. After a while, people noticed Maura wasn't drinking either, and Jane decided to ask her about it._

"_Say, aren't you from Europe?" she asked, opening a new Sprite can. "Don't you guys have like, really chill laws about underage drinking?"_

"_Say, aren't you from the states?" Maura countered. "Don't you guys have like, no conscience at all when it comes to breaking laws about underage drinking?"_

_Jane laughed and nodded. "Okay. Most of these clowns do, sure. I don't drink 'cause it's against the law." She shrugged. "Simple as that. Sure, it may be a stupid law—like I think it's kind of crazy that you could get drafted into the army before you can legally drink—but it's still the law, isn't it? Besides, I'm driving. I have a responsibility not to endanger other people on the road." She took a long sip of the Sprite, completely missing Maura's confused and disappointed expression. "Isn't it kinda screwed up?" Jane asked. "Joey's parents just hanging back, I mean. His mom's home, but I'm guessing she's just in her bedroom ignoring everything that's going on down here." She shook her head. "Irresponsible. So what about you, how come you don't drink?"_

_Maura had to fight to make herself heard over the loud music: "Oh, I don't know. Just don't like it, I guess. Don't like how it makes me feel."_

"_Guess I could understand that. Hey, uh, do wanna maybe find another room? Somewhere quieter, so we could just talk."_

_Instead of trying to respond verbally, Maura just nodded. Jane reached for her hand and pulled her through the crowd of grinding, tipsy teenagers that surrounded them in Joey's basement. This should have been a hint to Maura that Jane liked her enough to just go find a spot in this house where they could be alone, not with the rest of the party._

_The first room they tried had a group of about eight or nine kids in it, sitting on the floor in a circle with an empty beer bottle in the middle. Jane had dropped Maura's hand before twisting the knob open, and when she saw who exactly was inside, was glad she had done so. She just wanted to turn around and leave again, but the guys in the room hollered for Jane and Maura to come in, and Maura, appreciating the invitation, slipped past Jane into the room. Not wanting to leave without Maura, Jane resignedly stepped inside as well, closing the door behind her._

"_So what's going on in here?" Maura asked, taking a seat in the space that Joey and his friend Giovanni had made for her. _

"_You never played Spin the Bottle before?" Joey asked._

"_Let me explain," offered Jane, sitting between Emily and Maria. "It's a game that seven-year-olds play at their parties to make fun of cooties and who likes who. Seven-year-olds, and apparently seventeen-year-olds."_

"_It's more fun these days," snickered Giovanni._

"_Hm, classy," Jane said. "Emily, where is your shirt?"_

"_I had to take it off," she laughed. _

"_That's the rule if the bottle points at you two times in a row," Joey said. Turning to Maura, he added, "See, you have to kiss whoever the bottle points at. So now it's Kate's turn, and…" Kate obligingly leaned forward and gave the bottle a good spin, and after a few anxious moments of waiting, it landed on Joey. "All right! Happy birthday to me!" he laughed, as Kate quickly crawled over to him and pulled him into a lewd kiss. _

_Jane wrinkled her nose and wondered why she had let herself be dragged into this. They were all acting so gross, the girls giggling and the boys whooping drunkenly. Things were not improved when Joey spun the bottle and it landed on her._

"_Come on over, Rizzoli!" he shouted._

_She crossed her ankles and pulled her knees up, wrapping her arms around her legs. "Nope. You want these lips, you come over and get 'em yourself." _

_Joey just shrugged, and to the cheering of his friends, crossed the circle to get over to Jane. She would not indulge him by getting as into it as Kate did, though, staunchly remaining seated as he awkwardly leaned over to kiss her. When he tried to tease her mouth open with his tongue, Jane pulled back with an "Aw, gross, Joey! C'mon!", and shoved him away. He stumbled backwards onto his ass, narrowly avoiding the bottle and eliciting loud roars of laughter from his buddies. He tried his best to look cool and unfazed at Jane's rejection as he went back to his place in the circle and just told her to spin it already. _

_The birthday boy was not one of the people who was privy to Jane's pseudo-secret. She was no longer outwardly denying it when classmates asked if she was gay, but she didn't exactly go around announcing it, either. Let people speculate about whatever they wanted. Still, people were very interested to see who that bottle was going to land on when Jane grumblingly gave it a lazy spin._

_Maura, naturally. _

_The guys collectively shouted in jubilant anticipation, some of them pulling out their phones, ready to document this even pictorially. Maura couldn't deny that this was what she had been hoping for as soon as Joey had explained the game to her, but Jane did not seem as thrilled. It felt as though a stone had been dropped down into her stomach, part of it blocking her lungs along the way because she was struggling to breathe. She tried quickly to think—they'd all be too drunk to remember what happened, but she wouldn't be able to stop all those guys from taking pictures. She could, however, keep them from remembering if she just got up and left. _

_So that's what she did._

_To great boos and general disappointment, Jane vaulted to her feet and ran out of the room, heart thudding painfully in her ears. Joey was in the middle of offering to be Jane's proxy when Maura stood up as well, also fleeing. She was desperate to catch up with Jane, to know what had happened. She didn't want to be left alone, that was for sure, but she also had to understand why Jane had bolted. If the thought of kissing another girl disgusted her so badly, Maura needed to know. It'd be hell not knowing. Waiting another day and having it possibly not come up would be even worse torture. After a few moments of frustrated searching, Maura saw Jane ducking up the staircase at the far end of the room. Getting through the thick crowd of partyers was difficult, but Maura managed to do it, barely making it to the stairway just as Jane had disappeared through the door at the top._

"_Jane, wait!" Maura called after her, hurrying up the stairs. When she reached the kitchen they let out to, she could just make out the image of Jane outside, walking at a fast clip towards the driveway. Maura hurried outside as well, but Jane forced herself not to turn at the sound of the porch door swinging open and shut. "Jane! Stop! Where are you going?"_

"_I gotta get out of here," Jane said shortly, still not turning around._

_But Maura had caught up, grabbing Jane's shoulder and forcing her to stop. "Why did you leave just then?"_

"_I dunno, you saw what Joey did," Jane said, scrambling for excuses, hands jammed in her pockets. "He was being totally gross."_

"_You didn't leave right after he kissed you," Maura said. "You left when you saw you had to kiss __me__." She watched closely as Jane grit her teeth together, avoiding her eye, still trying to think of something to excuse her behavior. "I know that's what did it," Maura said levelly. "I know that's why you left. Just be honest with me, please—why did it scare you?"_

"_I'm not scared," Jane spat, taking a step back and looking offended._

"_Does it sicken you, then? Does the thought of kissing me make you so disgusted that you had to run off like that?" Maura asked, preparing herself to be utterly miserable if Jane's answer was anything even close to a "yes."_

"_No, it doesn't disgust me!" Jane said quickly. "I just—I just don't—"_

"_What, you don't what?"_

"_Well—I dunno, are you disappointed? Did you __want__ me to kiss you?" Jane asked desperately, drawing her hands out of her pockets and waving them incredulously. _

_This caught Maura off guard. She hadn't been prepared for Jane to question her; she was the one who was leaving, so she was the one who should have to explain herself, not the other way around. But Maura didn't even have to explain, not right then—her hesitancy and her flustered expression gave Jane enough encouragement to continue. Or it would have on its own, if Maura's inability to lie hadn't stepped in and helped even more: "Yes, Jane I did."_

_Jane's mouth dropped slightly and her brow furrowed in disbelief. "You—what?"_

"_I wanted you to kiss me. I thought that was the point of the game." _

"_This isn't a game, not to me," Jane said seriously, though her voice was trembling. "Maura, look. I have to be honest with you, okay? I have…" She took a deep breath and put her face in her hands for a moment, trying to calm herself. Her heart was beating a hundred times a second and she was more scared than she had ever been in her life. There was so much at stake here, but the possibility of getting it all off her chest pushed her to go on: "I really like you, okay? Like, a lot. Way too much, probably. Ever since that first day we met, I've just thought you were the coolest person I've ever met, and I was trying to flirt with you, but you didn't seem to pick up on it."_

_ "Jane, I—"_

_ "No, no, don't stop me now," Jane breathed. "I have to keep going, I have to get this all out." She took another deep breath, giving Maura the opportunity to step in and stop her again, but Maura just quietly waited for her to continue. "Then it got too weird, like we became really good friends, you know? And I wasn't sure—I just wasn't sure if you felt the same way, or if girls are just that friendly and touchy-feely and whatever in Europe, and I was reading it the wrong way. I didn't want to freak you out. And I didn't want to lose your friendship, as stupid and cliché as that sounds. Anyway, the point of all this, Maura, is that…" She took another deep breath, rubbing her arms against the cold. "I have thought about it. About kissing you. I have come up with all these scenarios where I might kiss you for the first time, and none of them have included Joey and Giovanni and their drunk friends looking on and taking pictures!" _

_ She couldn't believe she had just come out and said it, and it seemed that Maura couldn't believe it either. For a few more heart-pounding seconds, Jane had no idea if that was a good thing or not, until Maura took a step closer and said, "Have any of those scenarios taken place in Joey's driveway?"_

_ Jane let out a shallow, shaky breath. When it appeared as If Maura was about to kiss her, she gently pressed a hand against Maura's chest. "No, they haven't," she whispered. "But… one of them does take place on your porch, after I walk you home from a party." _

_ Maura calmly held out her hand. "Will you walk me home?"_

_ "Probably should, I guess," Jane said, reverting to faux nonchalance to cover her eruption of excitement and nervousness as she took Maura's hand. "I mean I walked you here, so it's only the polite thing to do." _

_ It was about a fifteen minute walk to the nicer part of town, where Maura's family had settled. For about five minutes or so, they were practically silent. Maura was trying to figure out what the appropriate thing to say would be, and Jane was still trying to process the fact that Maura wanted to kiss her. Finally Maura admitted how long she too had been struggling with keeping this attraction on the down-low, and talking about it made her feel more at ease. Jane chuckled and squeezed her hand. Of course she would react this way. Of course Jane loved her. _

_ When they reached the Isles' home, Jane stopped them in front of the porch steps and turned to face Maura. She couldn't believe this was about to happen, that one of her fantasies was about to come true. Once or twice she had even actually dreamed about this very situation, but she had always woken up before ever getting to kiss Maura. But this was reality, this was really going to happen! After a long pause, Jane lifted a trembling hand and cupped Maura's cheek, stroking it with her thumb. A few more moments passed as she vainly tried to will her heartbeat to calm down, but it would not be at rest. She leaned in slightly, but still didn't make a move._

_ "What're you waiting for?" Maura whispered, her breath breaking against Jane's lips._

_ Jane gave a shuddering breath in response. "I just want to be sure I do this right." _

_ But she knew she couldn't wait much longer. She licked her lips before closing the distance and pressing them softly, tentatively against Maura's. Maura instantly reacted with a soft, involuntary moan, resting her hands on Jane's waist and gently pulling her closer. Jane slid her hands into that golden hair and found that it was even more impossibly smooth than she could have imagined, just like the pure heaven of Maura's soft lips. _

_When they pulled apart, they were still holding each other, both of them flushed and smiling. "Wow," Jane breathed._

_ "I concur," Maura said._

_ Jane's smile widened—she loved her little dork. "That was …I don't even know. So much better than what I'd even dreamt up. Maura, can I take you out tomorrow? On a date?" _

_ "That would be wonderful, Jane."_

_ Jane blushed and ran her thumb across Maura's cheek one last time. "Perfect." _

Maura sighed happily at the memory, completely oblivious to the swoon-worthy expressions on her roommate's faces. "And we've been together ever since. She was so funny—on our first date, I got her to tell me some of the other ways she'd imagined kissing me, and we've gotten to most of them. She keeps adding them to the list, always keeping me on my toes." She shrugged and sighed again, grinning as she folded Jane's note and tucked it into her pocket. "That first one will always stand out, though. When I got inside my house, I ran to the upstairs window to watch her walk away, and just when she was almost out of sight, I saw her do a cartwheel!" She indulged her roommates in some laughter, and just shook her head at the delightful silliness of it all. "I think it's safe to say that we've both been cartwheeling—metaphorically but sometimes literally, in her case—since then."


	4. Do I Have to Brand You

**A/N**: So yeah, I didn't expect to update this so soon. It's another idea that just flew into my head and I got out fairly quickly. That's what I like about writing this... it doesn't require as much planning as the other stories do, haha. (**I know, I suck**! Rest assured that the next Calamity Jane installment and the next Bones Crossover chapter are both in progress. Unfortunately I am currently facing a really busy week school-wise, so if I do what'll be best for my grade, I'll be focusing on work for a while. That might totally not end up happening, so I may end up updating faster than anticipated, but I just wanted to throw that out there). Thank goodness for this outlet, where no angst resides and none of that pesky plot stuff.

* * *

><p>After story time was over, the girls went back to their separate ways: Rachel for a quick shower, Stacey to go take a test, and Amber to sleep for three more hours. Maura went back to her bedroom and shut the door, reclining on her bed and calling Jane as per her request. A few rings went by before Jane, panting heavily, finally answered. "Hello?"<p>

"Oh, that is _not_ fair," Maura groaned. "You can't answer the phone like that."

"Like what?" Jane asked, still gasping for breath.

"Like we're having phone sex."

Jane laughed hoarsely. "Get your mind out of the gutter! I'm finishing up the lawn. Wouldn't have heard the phone over the mower, but it was on vibrate, so… and get your mind out of the gutter _again_, Maura! Besides, you're the one who called _me_."

"I know," Maura said with a pout. "Although I don't see how you finding you sexually arousing means my mind is in the gutter. We're in a relationship, aren't we? Even if you still don't feel comfortable going what is colloquially referred to as 'all the way,' I don't think it's unnatural for me to think about it."

There was a long silence before Jane answered: "Okay. You're right."

Maura knew Jane didn't like talking about this, but remained quiet in the hopes that her sometimes-taciturn girlfriend would keep going. Unfortunately, Jane didn't elaborate, putting the ball back in Maura's corner. "When do you think you could come over today? We still have to put our outfits together."

"Right. About that…"

"Jane, don't back out on me!"

"No, no, I'm not backing out, I just have a… counter-offer. I am still beyond exhausted from the trip and jet lag and all that crap. After I finish mowing, I'm probably going to take a shower and then take a nap, and I have no idea what I'll feel like tonight. I just—I dunno, especially after all the parties in Italy, I just don't feel like going to a rowdy party tonight, you know? But I definitely don't want those things we bought last night to go to waste. So I thought we could, y'know… have a private party."

"Hm, I like this idea," Maura purred. It was difficult for her to concentrate on what Jane was saying; just the girl's voice in her ear while Maura was lying in bed was incredibly arousing, and she was about to ask Jane what she was wearing when Rachel walked back in from her shower. As she stumbled around getting dressed while also running a towel through her soaked black hair, she was totally ignorant of the fact that she had nearly walked in on Maura nearly ready to do something vastly inappropriate. She hadn't even done anything, but Maura was blushing anyway as she hurried to finish the phone call. "Uh—so then, yes. I will see you later?"

"You bet. I'll call when I'm done here, okay?"

"Sounds like a plan. Babe, I'm so glad you're back."

She could hear Jane's smile in her response. "Me too, Maura. Love you."

"Love you back. Bye!"

Rachel just chuckled lightly to herself when Maura hung up. "I gotta say, Maura Isles, I would never have pegged you for the romantic type. I mean you are a puddle of _mush! _…it's an expression," she hastily added when Maura gave her a confused look.

"I feel a tad pathetic," Maura said. "I mean, moping around when Jane was gone. I don't like to think of myself as the type of girl who's completely despondent and a wreck when her love is gone. It's just that Jane and I—we, well, we need each other. And we certainly have our squabbles and our fights now and then, but it's never reached the point where I've thought of breaking up with her. I just can't picture my life without her being a key player in it." She laughed uneasily at the half-grin on her roommate's face. "I sound so lame, don't I?"

"No way," Rachel said softly. "And hey, we're glad that Jane is back. She _does _bring out something special in you that we haven't seen before. I mean, do you realize that telling us about her this morning is the longest conversation we've ever had with you? And I didn't say that to make you guilty, sorry!" she laughed when Maura blushed and rubbed the back of her neck. "I just mean it like—so my best friend started dating this guy really seriously the summer after our junior year, and I swear she transformed. Not in a good way, either. Like she'd never hang out anymore, and she wouldn't even really talk to her old friends much. She and I used to tell each other everything, and we got so distant because her boyfriend was the only thing that mattered. You and Jane on the other hand, while it's clear that Jane means everything to you… she sort of opened you up, didn't she?"

"I suppose so," Maura said.

"And that's why I think this is great! Instead of clamming up and being too cool _because _you're dating someone, you were quiet and reserved because she wasn't around. Now that she's back, there's just this… I don't know, this spark in you. And I really, really hope it sticks around, because I think you're pretty cool, Maura."

Maura smiled, not having expected anything even close to this line of conversation. "Thanks, Rachel. I think you're pretty cool, too."

_All right! Roomie bonding moment! _Rachel thought, giving herself a mental pat on the back. "By the way, do you know Danny Albright?"

"Danny Albright…sounds familiar."

"He's roommates with Stacey's boyfriend, Jack? You've met him a couple of times."

"Oh, Danny! Yes, right."

"He, um…he kind of wants to ask you out."

"Really? How do you know?"

"Well…he'd been hinting at it lately, like he kept asking us about you, but we didn't know until yesterday that you were seeing anyone. Or, more specifically, that you're seeing a girl. And when you didn't come to the game last night, he asked us where you were, and uh… well, we just didn't feel comfortable like, outing you. You know? Because I mean obviously you didn't really keep it a secret when you started making out with Jane hardcore right in front of us, but you hadn't brought her up until then, so I guess we still just felt—I dunno—"

"That's all right," Maura kindly interrupted. "I will happily tell him myself if he ever brings it up to my face."

"Really? Great," Rachel said, picking up her phone when it buzzed on the night stand. "Yeah… 'cause this is a text from him right now. He's on his way over."

"What?"

"Well he mentioned last night that you're actually in his French and Italian Cinema class, and he wanted to pick your brain about an upcoming paper."

"We have a paper?"

"Don't ask me. Amber let slip that you usually get up early, so he…" Rachel waved her phone and sighed. "He's coming over. Sorry!"

"Don't apologize, it's fine," Maura said, getting up and walking over to her closet. "I should just probably change into something a little less, uh, casual."

Of course, "less casual" for Maura Isles translated into a pencil skirt and silk blouse, and before Rachel had really noticed and could have said "do you _want _to lead him on?" there was a knock on their door and Maura had flounced out to open it. Standing there was Danny Albright, six-feet-two-inches of Maura's former type: broad-shouldered, blue-eyed, sandy-haired and slightly unshaven (Jane had changed all that). He was dressed in a pair of dirty jeans and a plaid shirt with the sleeves rolled up, and upon seeing what Maura was wearing, he raised his eyebrows and let his eyes unashamedly pore over her from top to bottom.

"Well good morning," he said.

"Hi, Danny."

He grinned. "You remember me?"

Maura's smile faltered. "Er—well, only because Rachel had just mentioned you might be coming over. We're in the same French and Italian Cinema class?"

"Yeah," he said, stepping past Maura inside the apartment. "Gross, who's the Yankees fan?" he asked, nodding at the poster.

"Hm? Oh, one of my roommates. Amber."

"Right. You follow baseball?"

"Not…not really."

"Oh." He sighed and dropped down onto the couch, waving the notebook he'd been holding under his arm. Marveling silently at the impropriety and presumptuousness of his behavior, Maura sat down anyway and let him continue: "I guess you might not notice me in class very much, because I usually sit in the back and don't talk a lot of the time. Not 'cause I don't have ideas, it's just that I don't really like to speak up, you know? But Dr. Caron thinks you're a genius, so I thought you'd be a good person to ask about the paper." Maura stared blankly at him. "You know? The Fellini response?"

"Right! Oh, yes, right," Maura said, remembering now. (She'd written the assignment a week ago.) "I forgot all about that! I was mighty distracted because my girlfriend came to visit me last night and, well, academics just flew out the window, so to speak!"

Danny's mouth fell open, and Maura just grinned. He blinked a few times and looked around the apartment, as if expecting a roommate to pop up from behind a chair and yell "surprise!" When this didn't happen, he returned his gaze to Maura and said, "Your girlfriend! So, like, an old friend from high school, or…?"

"No, my girlfriend as in the person I am seeing romantically."

"The…you're…" He exhaled a shaky laugh. "Very funny."

"I don't understand…"

"Come on!" Danny laughed, gesturing at Maura in her feminine attire and quickly (but still nicely) made-up face. "You? You're not gay!"

Maura frowned. "If I'm not, I certainly have an odd tendency to put my mouth on Jane whenever I see her."

"Oh, 'Jane,' huh? Okay."

"I don't see why you're acting this way," Maura said. "According to my roommates, you have expressed an interest in me. I have to take their word for it, because you were never man enough to bring it up until now, when you waltzed uninvited into my apartment. And now you have the gall to sit there and think I'm _lying _to you about having a girlfriend?"

He shrugged. "C'mon, it's the oldest trick in the book! My sister and her best friend used to pull that all the time when one of 'em was getting hit on by a guy they didn't like. They'd pretend to be lesbians, and it's all very cute, but it's so high school, Maura, come on."

Her countenance got more distinctly displeased. "Danny, if you don't want to believe that I have a girlfriend, that's fine. That is your strange prerogative. But if you think I'm only making it up because I'm not interested in you, well, that should tip you off, too then!"

Appearing slightly humbled, Danny said, "Okay, okay, I'm sorry. You're right, I should've said something to you sooner, and I'm a coward for not doing that. It's just that I thought you were really pretty and really smart, and I tend to be kind of a spaz around girls I like. Don't you think you could maybe just give me a chance? Just one date? Not even a date. Coffee."

Shaking her head in disbelief, Maura stood up and said, "No. Now please leave."

"Maura, come on. Please?"

"No!" she said with more force. "Get out of my suite before I grab my rape whistle and blow on it loud enough for the R.A. to hear!"

Danny hastily got to his feet, muttering a very unsavory word in Maura's direction as he passed. When he slammed the door behind him, Rachel tentatively poked her head outside of her and Maura's room. "Uh, sorry. Should I have helped with that? I heard raised voices…"

"He thought I was lying about Jane!" Maura said, still shocked at his nerve. "I told him I am already in a relationship, and he didn't believe me because I don't _look_ gay, whatever that means! I was polite! I tried to let him down nicely! But he kept going, so I asked him to leave! And then he called me—he called me …a word that isn't used in refined society, outside of a kennel."

Rachel whistled. "First of all, I'm going to have to steal that line sometime. Second of all, well, I can kind of understand why he thinks you don't look gay."

"What?"

"I'm not saying it's right," Rachel hurried to explain. "I'm just saying it was sort of a bit of a surprise to us, too. It just goes to show the impact society has on us. You say the word 'lesbian' and people get this image in their heads—butch, you know, short haircuts and men's clothing and all that. Nobody ever pictures someone as elegant and traditionally feminine as you."

"While it's exceedingly unfortunate, I suppose I can understand why that would be," Maura sighed, sitting down again.

Rachel suggested they go out for a late breakfast to get Maura's mind off the incident, and she took Maura out to a nice little nearby café she and Amber had discovered a while ago. "The food here is really good," Rachel said as they approached the place. She winked and added, "But not as good as the eye candy! …uh, if you like guys, I mean."

"Oh, I still find men attractive," Maura said lightly.

"Really? So like, you're bisexual, then?"

Maura shrugged as they walked inside the café. "I suppose if you had to call it something, then yes. I mean I can admire beauty in both men and women, but I find myself less and less sexually attracted to men. I guess you could say I've become _Jane_-sexual!"

"Ha! Wow." Rachel was about to just bite the bullet and ask what sex was like with another girl when the waiter she and Amber stalked frequently walked over to their table. "Ian! Hey!"

"G'day, Rachel!"

"Did you really just say '_g'day_?'" Maura asked.

Ian grinned at her. "Ah, you know. Give the people what they want."

"In that case, I'll take a date any time this week," Rachel said.

"You heard about me and Sheila?" Ian asked, frowning.

"Sheila? Really?" Maura said. "As in, little?"

"As in that was my girlfriend's name," Ian answered, his smile returning. "Guess it wasn't meant to be, though. Hey, who are you, anyway? You ever been around here before?"

"This is my and Amber's other roommate, Maura," Rachel said. "Maura, this is Ian, who has single-handedly convinced me that every establishment should be contractually obliged to hire at least one man with a really hot accent."

Maura laughed and shook Ian's hand. "Which part of Australia are you from?"

Ian sat down on Rachel's side of the table and fell into easy conversation with the two roommates. Maura found him absolutely fascinating, and questioned him endlessly about his life back home and what had brought him to Boston and his humanitarian work. Rachel would have felt threatened if she didn't know that Maura was already heavily invested in somebody else, and as such, was able to through her two cents in now and then without feeling desperate. She did have to admit she found it somewhat surprising that Maura was talking so easily to Ian, though—although when she stopped to think about it, Rachel supposed that had often been the case when Maura tagged along to games and guys were there. She seemed to be able to talk with them much more easily than she did with other girls, for whatever reason.

They had all been talking for about twenty minutes when Ian's boss came over and pulled him up by the scruff of his shirt. "What the hell are you doin', ya limey? I catch you flirting on the job again and I'll personally put you in a box and ship you back to Liverpool!"

"For the last time, Rodgers, it's _Brisbane_," Ian moaned as he followed his boss to the back.

Rachel and Maura were too busy laughing at this to notice right away when Danny walked over to their table. "Oh, Danny!" Rachel said when she realized he was glowering at them. "Hello! How long have you been here?"

"Long enough," he said stiffly, glaring at Maura. "You really want to keep telling me you've got a girlfriend? Because that sure looked a hell of a lot like flirting to me. Do I need a stupid accent, is that it?"

"Wow, you don't take well to rejection at all, do you?" Maura asked.

"Yeah, get a grip, Dan," Rachel said. "I know what just happened totally made it look like Maura was into Ian, but we were all just talking."

Maura frowned. "Wait, what did I do?"

"Never mind," Rachel said, waving a dismissive hand at her. "The point is, Danny, I can vouch for Maura here. She's got a girlfriend, and if I were you, I'd back off."

"Ooh, I'm scared," he said, rolling his eyes and walking away.

"Oh, he _will _be," Maura said darkly, pulling out her phone as Danny stalked out of the café. She dialed Jane's number, shaking her head at Danny's retreating figure. "I can't believe that guy. He hardly says a word to me, and then all of a sudden starts acting like I owe him some—" She cut off when Jane picked up. "Hey, babe!"

"Hey! Maura, you wouldn't believe what all got stuck in our rain gutter while we were away. Come to think of it, I'm starting to wonder if Ma and Pop _ever_ got this thing cleaned before—I swear I just scraped an 'I Like Ike' sticker off an old water pistol I found up here."

"You're cleaning rain gutters?" Maura asked sympathetically.

"Well, it's my own fault. After I finished the lawn, I figured I should just get any more grunt work out of the way before I took a shower. Of course I made the mistake of asking my_ mother_ instead of easygoing Pop what else I could do in that regard, so here I am. Up on the roof. Alone."

"Isn't that dangerous?"

"I'll be safe, don't worry. Why're you calling?"

"Why—oh, right." She sighed heavily, putting her face in her hand. "I've just had a crappy morning is all. Some guy has started harassing me, and he won't—"

"Harassing you? Physically? Is he there right now? Can I beat him up?"

"No, it's—no," Maura said, chuckling lightly at the anxious protectiveness in Jane's voice. "He's just a sore loser is all. Won't accept the fact that I'm already seeing someone."

"Damn _right _you're seeing someone."

"Exactly. I'm not sure if he'll be around when you come over—"

Rachel cut in with a whisper: "I'll make sure he is."

Grinning appreciatively at her, Maura said, "But I just wanted to request that you show up looking like a total badass. Give him a scare, you know."

There was a long silence on the line before Jane asked seriously, "Do you want me to bring Pop's gun?"

"What? No! This is a college campus. Don't bring a gun."

"How about his bike?"

"Ooh, yes. That would be perfect. Would you wear—"

"I'll wear just the right thing. Don't you worry."

And so, at four-thirty that afternoon, when Jane had finally finished unpacking, done every last chore Angela could make up, and showered, she arrived at BCU's campus. Just before leaving her house, she had asked Maura where to meet her, and Maura told her where to find the parking lot just by the library. Little clumps of students dotted the lawn, many of them doing last minute studying before the weekend really began. Among them were Maura and her roommates, plus Danny and Jack, just hanging out. When a big black Harley drove loudly into the parking lot, it attracted a bit of attention from some of the nearby students, and Maura grinned in anticipation.

"I don't think motorcycles should be allowed on campus," Amber sighed absent-mindedly as the rider revved the engine once before shutting it off. She turned to glare at the person over her shoulder, which is when Jane took off her helmet and made a show of flipping her dark hair back and sticking the helmet on one of the handlebars. "Whoa. Unless you're as hot as that coming off of one."

Jane had located Maura immediately and made for her in a straight line, turning more than one head as she did so. She was wearing a black leather motorcycle jacket and black denim jeans tucked into the only pair of boots she owned (naturally given to her by her fashion-conscious girlfriend). As she neared Maura's group, she unzipped the jacket nearly all the way, reflexively licking her lips as her eyes locked on Maura's. She held out a hand and grabbed Maura, yanking her into a standing position and pulling her instantly into a somewhat heated kiss.

"Ah, young love," Rachel sighed, as Jack and Danny's jaws dropped and a few guys nearby issued some cat-calls.

At the sound of the boys hooting, Jane broke off the kiss and shot a glare at one of them, daring him—and by extension all of them—to make another noise. (Suddenly, everyone nearby became very interested in their homework once more.)

"Jane, nice to see you again!" said Stacey.

"Yeah, we were wondering where you went this morning," Rachel said pointedly. "After you spent the night, I mean."

"Hope you guys didn't mind that," Jane chuckled.

Stacey shrugged. "Not at all. By the way, this is my boyfriend Jack, and his roommate Danny."

"Jack, nice to meet you," Jane said, leaning over to shake his hand. Her eyes darkened slightly when her gaze shifted to Danny, whose expression was a mixture of confusion, anger, and fear. Jane straightened up, withdrawing her hand. "Danny. I'm guessing you're the clown who's been messing with my girl. Word to the wise: don't ever bother her again." She slid her hand into Maura's back pocket, pulling her closer. "If you do, I'll make sure they never find your body. _Capice_?" There wasn't really a way he could have responded to this, and Jane didn't give him the chance to try. She swiftly turned on her heel, walking away with Maura at her side, Jane's hand still in her pocket. She groaned softly at the feeling of Maura's ass riding into her palm with each step. "Maura, are you wearing underwear?"

"Mmm, no," she said with a grin.

"Stop," Jane said breathlessly, stepping back against a tree and pulling Maura roughly into a kiss. She slipped her other hand into Maura's other back pocket as Maura slid her hands inside the opening of Jane's jacket, grasping her waist. This had stopped being a show to scare off Danny and had become just another match of tonsil boxing, each of them trying to impress and satisfy the other. Jane arched her back when Maura's tongue entered her mouth, and she moved one hand up to grab a fistful of golden hair, pulling harder as she became more aroused. When they broke apart for breath, Jane whispered in her ear, "How'd I do?"

"Amazing," Maura said, her breath tickling Jane's neck before she left a soft kiss there, then at her jaw and her cheek. "You are _so_ sexy." She gently brought Jane's earlobe between her teeth before whispering, "I can't believe I get to call you mine."

"The feeling is mutual," Jane said. "I just want to make sure everyone _else _understands that _you _are _mine_. What do I have to do, _brand_ you?"

"If you want," Maura said with a smirk, challengingly raising an eyebrow. "But maybe not in such a public place."

"Probably a good point," Jane chuckled, taking Maura's hand. "Shall we go to your suite? I'm assuming I'll have to move the bike…"

"Yes."

"Oops, I forgot to bring the other helmet—you can wear mine. I promise to go slow and be safe, all right?"

As they walked hand-in-hand back to the motorcycle, Rachel just shook her head. "I don't think so," she said in a flat, serious voice. "Maura's totally just making it up. Right?"

"Yup. I don't buy it," Stacey added sarcastically, leaning against Jack, who was trying not to snicker at Danny. "They're definitely not in love."

"Yeah," Amber deadpanned. "They're definitely straight."

Grunting in frustration, Danny got up and stalked away, deaf to the laughter of the people he'd left behind.

* * *

><p><strong>AN**: You know what I'm realizing? I am incapable of writing one-shots. It's like I _need _to have some kind of continuity, which is why the private ABC party will be next. I dunno- maybe after that I can get away from linear storytelling. Anywho, thanks to everyone who has been reviewing, favoriting, and/or alerting! I do it all for you, people :)


	5. ABC Party

**A/N**: I think I need to say this. Someone asked me (in a review that seems to have disappeared) when I am going to get to the "good stuff" here. If by "the good stuff" you mean sex, I'm going to tell you to look elsewhere. I'll be honest, I pushed the comfort boundary on this chapter, and it's not ever going to get more intense than this. There are plenty of other very well-written Rizzles sex stories out there- this one's for fluff. (...with the occasional line-crossing, such as here. Point being, nothing above a T rating.)

* * *

><p>"I think we need a new rule," Maura said as she and Jane walked from her bike to the suite. "You have to wear leather at least once a week."<p>

"You like the look, huh?"

"Sure I do. I remember the first time I ever saw you in leather, actually," she laughed. "It was the day we told your mother about us."

"Damn, Maura, you've got a good memory."

"Only because _you _look so damn good in leather. We hadn't planned on telling her yet, but you looked so… you just looked so _hot _that I couldn't keep myself from staring at you, and I gave myself away," Maura chuckled, getting out her keys as they approached her suite. "Your mother—"

"Okay, we really need to stop talking about my mother right now," Jane said in a dangerously low voice once Maura had opened the door. She didn't even have time to ask why before Jane had forced her inside and kicked the door shut behind her, tossing her backpack to the floor. "It's time for me to mark my territory," she growled into Maura's ear, steering her forcefully to the couch and pulling the girl down on top of her. As Maura readjusted herself quickly to be in a position to straddle Jane, Jane smirked and slid her hands once again into Maura's back pockets. "Mmm, no wonder that guy couldn't keep his eyes off you today. These jeans look incredible on you."

"Actually, I was wearing something else earlier," Maura said, folding her hands behind Jane's neck. "I put these on just for you."

Giving Maura's butt a playful pinch, Jane chuckled, "Well aren't you thoughtful."

"Yes, I am," Maura whispered, pulling back so her lips were just out of reach. Jane furrowed her brow slightly, and Maura smirked. "I bought you something else for tonight."

"Really?" Jane husked. "Can I see?"

Maura gave her a quick kiss before getting up. "Of course."

As she walked over to the kitchen, Jane leaned over and reached into the backpack she had dropped so carelessly on the floor. "I've got something for you, too," she said, picking up a small bag and getting to her feet. She joined Maura in the small kitchen area and handed the clear plastic bag to her. "Sweets for the sweet."

"Fudge clusters!" Maura laughed. "You're so cute, Jane. I got something sweet for you, too."

Which is when Jane realized she was holding up a canister of marshmallow fluff. "Ooh, awesome! Have you got any bread? For sandwiches?"

"Yes, but that's not what I bought the fluff for." Jane raised an eyebrow at Maura's completely serious tone. When Jane still didn't appear to get it, Maura continued with a straight face: "I want you to lick this off of me."

"Ha! Uh…" Jane's grin faltered when she registered that Maura was not joking. "Wow. Really?"

Maura shrugged. "Yes. "

"Um…oh. Okay. What exactly were you thinking?"

Biting her lip, Maura said, "Honestly? A marshmallow fluff bikini."

"Oh man," Jane said in a shallow voice, her eyes darkening as she pictured it.

"But," Maura continued in airy voice, demurely averting her gaze to the counter. "I know that you probably wouldn't be comfortable with that concept…"

Such a long silence followed this statement that Maura looked up again, hoping that maybe she was wrong and Jane would be all for it. These dreams were dashed once more when she saw the hesitancy in Jane's eyes, and Jane finally said, "A bikini? You know I couldn't handle that, Maura, when we haven't even had sex! I couldn't…" She looked around and lowered her voice, apparently forgetting that they were alone in the apartment. "I couldn't like, put… my tongue there."

"Yes, I know," Maura sighed. "Can't hardly bring yourself to put your _hand _there."

"Which 'there' are _you _talking about?" Jane asked, gesturing to the various parts of Maura's body that would be covered by a bikini.

"Both, or should I say all," Maura said, pointing to them as well (and in so doing, inadvertently crudely crossing herself). Then, in a less frustrated tone, she added, "It's okay. I wasn't expecting you to be willing to go so far so fast. But I thought, you know, you don't use your tongue to as great affect as you might—beyond putting it on my mouth, I mean. I think it would be good for you to open up a little bit and do that for me. For both of us. It could be a step in the right direction, if you know what I mean."

"Yeah, yeah, I know what you mean," Jane chuckled. "And…" She took a nervous breath, assuaged only by the eager but patient look in her lovely girlfriend's eyes. "I think it's a great idea." In her best Tim Gunn impression, she said, "Let's make it work!"

"Oh my gosh, only if you never do that again."

"Deal."

They spent nearly half an hour looking at the random materials they had bought the previous night, conceptualizing ideas for some outfits. Maura had to keep pushing Jane to be more creative with her own design, and by creative she also meant less modest. She stressed that the point of an ABC party was to get away with wearing as little as possible, and refused to let Jane skimp on that rule. Once they finally got down the basics, Maura agreed to actually make the outfits so long as Jane would allow her to get some approximate measurements—she wanted the get-up to be as fitted as possible.

As she got to work cutting up some aluminum foil, Maura said, "So tell me about the fashions in Italy! What were the women wearing?"

"What? I dunno. I wasn't really paying attention. They _were _all driving those teeny tiny cars, though, those Smartcars. Really weird."

"You _would _notice cars," Maura sighed.

"Well, they were kinda hard not to notice, since they were oh, everywhere."

"Right. But come on, Jane. Didn't you pay any attention to the women there?"

"Oh, I paid attention to the women," Jane teased her, raising an eyebrow and smirking. "Just not their clothes."

Maura looked up, having missed the sarcasm. "Jane?"

"Baby, come on. You know I don't have eyes for anyone but you," Jane said, leaning in for a quick kiss. "I mean sure, the women over there are beautiful, but that's not what I was focusing on. In fact, I'm really glad I had you to think about, because it meant I could actually focus on _Italy_, you know? Ma was over the moon, really. I was all over the old buildings, and the paintings, and the sculptures and stuff. Frankie and Tommy were just these horny little buggers running all over the place, thinking and looking with their dicks, y'know? Er, metaphorically."

"I understand."

"Right. Every party Gianna dragged us to, they were all over the ladies, and oh, those girls _loved _them, I gotta say. Eventually they got wise and started telling girls we were from New York, because that tended to impress them more."

"These girls…did they love you, too?"

"Ha. Some tried to express an interest, yeah."

"What'd you tell them?"

Jane shrugged, lazily unspooling a bunch of green dental floss. "Just told 'em I had someone waiting for me back home. Usually that'd get them to back off, but sometimes I had to get on Gianna's phone and show them a picture."

"Gianna has a picture of me on her phone?"

"No, like I'd go on facebook." As Maura continued to work, Jane smiled slowly. "You know, the first time I ever saw you, you were actually in a bikini."

"No I wasn't, I was wearing the blue swimsuit I'd just bought at my mother's favorite store. I remember wondering if it was practical to go from showing so much skin to such little, but the suit was just so gorgeous and Esther Williams-y that I couldn't pass it up."

Jane shook her head. "Yeah, that's what you were wearing the first time we _met_ and like, had a conversation, but I mean the first time I _saw _you, noticed you. Hell, how could anyone _not _notice you! I remember thinking no human being had the right to pull off such an ungodly shade of orange, but you made it work. And your hair, you had your hair up in this really elaborate style I had never seen, and I swear I thought you were there for a photo shoot or something. I couldn't believe it when I finally spoke to you and found out you were my age. You looked so much older."

Maura had since looked up from what she was doing, honestly surprised that Jane had remembered those details from so long ago. But she knew it would embarrass Jane to get called out for it, so she said, "As long as we're reminiscing, I remember the first time I got to see your abs."

"Oh geez," Jane chuckled.

"I finally got you to come early-morning running with me."

For reasons Maura still struggled to comprehend, Jane had never been comfortable putting her body on display. It was only relatively recently that she had started wearing tank tops and short shorts without feeling weird about it. Maura had quickly figured out that the best way to see Jane wearing as few clothes as possible was when she was working out, an activity she typically did in nothing but shorts and a sports bra. When they went for that first and only early morning run, Maura had thought that Adidas should pay Jane every time she went outside wearing their clothes.

"That was obviously before I could even bring myself to tell you that I liked you, so of course it was torture running with you. It's why I never asked you to again—I hope you didn't take it personally. I just honestly didn't think I would be able to handle being in such proximity with you when you were so under-dressed and sweaty."

"You know, I'm just glad I found a girl who's so into the whole sweat thing," Jane laughed. "I thought it would've been a huge turn-off."

"Not a chance," Maura said with a catlike grin. "When you sweat, it's because you've been working out or doing some other kind of strenuous activity, and I find it incredibly arousing." _Of course, I find most everything about you arousing, but still_… When Jane's only response was to laugh uneasily, Maura said, "I bet you sweat a lot over in Italy. I always checked the weather and it seemed like except for a couple of wet weeks in July, it was rarely lower than 85 degrees."

"Yeah, it was pretty hot. That's why I'd always do my running in the morning, when it was at least a _little _cooler and the sun hadn't come up yet." Maura was finding it very hard to concentrate on putting together their outfits as the image of Jane running through an Italian landscape clouded her mind. She was brought out of her reverie when Jane said, "Uh, we should be expecting your roommates back soon, right?"

"No, they've already got their stuff ready for the party, and it's stashed at Rachel's sister's place. We have the suite to ourselves."

"Sweet."

"Yes, the suite."

"No, I meant—never mind, Maura."

When both of their outfits were completed some time later and they had changed into them (Maura in her room, Jane in the bathroom), Jane could only remark, "We look like futuristic space hookers." Maura laughed at the frank assessment, and had to agree.

They stood in front of the shared bathroom mirror, evaluating themselves in each other in their new, clothes-less ensembles: Jane was essentially in an impressively-crafted aluminum foil halter-top, and an even more impressively-crafted pair of foil booty shorts. Somehow Maura had managed to line the front of both pieces with pages of _OK! _magazine with the intention of making them slightly more wearable and less grating on Jane's figure. As a last minute addition, Jane had jokingly tossed some glitter in her hair and tied a trash bag around her neck to make some kind of ridiculous cape. Maura's outfit was much more elaborate, and much more erotic compared to Jane's silliness: basically a bra and a skirt made almost entirely of plastic wrap. The transparency of the medium was what had led to her selection, but lest Jane's synapses all fire off at once, she had been sure to cover particularly private areas. She had cleverly used the dental floss to string together a sort of crude outer-skirt made of corn husks from the cobs they had picked up, more bunched together in the front and back then on the sides. Her top was an entirely different matter, though—Jane had jokingly suggested she use the ice cream cones to go for a Katy Perry effect, but Maura took the more practical approach of using cupcake wrappers instead. They were flat/malleable enough for Jane to get close if she wanted to, but also provided enough of a barrier to keep Jane from noticing how aroused Maura was liable to get.

"I have one rule," Maura finally said.

"Name it."

"No pictures. Or if you _do _take them, no pictures on facebook. Deal?"

"Absolutely."

"All right then. Let's get this party started," Maura chuckled, pulling Jane out of the bathroom and back to the living room. Opening her laptop on the kitchen counter, she said, "Before you got here, I spent a while compiling what I thought would make a fun playlist."

Jane initially worried that they would be sitting around in the foil-and-plastic-wrap hooker outfits with some classical music in the background, but Maura's playlist turned out to be surprisingly situation-appropriate …almost _too _appropriate. As someone who didn't listen to much outside of '80s rock, Jane couldn't place the artist or even necessarily the genre, but it was slow and sensual, and already making her wonder how she was going to make it through the night in one piece. Glancing for the fiftieth time at the front door to make sure it was locked, Jane leaned against the kitchen wall and watched as Maura opened the lid to the marshmallow fluff.

_ Oh, fluff! _Jane couldn't help thinking. _You're never going to be innocent again…!_

"You can take off that cape, honey. You're home," Maura purred. She smiled as Jane weakly undid the garbage bag ties around her neck, letting it fall mutely to the floor. Maura stepped closer, brazenly sticking her index finger into the jar of fluff and pulling out a glob. "I got this for you because I know it's your favorite, but it may have expired. You should probably taste it and let me know if it's gone bad." She held out her finger expectantly.

Jane couldn't move. She was never comfortable outside her own skin, and the only reason she had agreed to the concept of an ABC party was so she could see whatever Maura was going to wear. Any action on her part was difficult, and she also felt out of her element with the role-play Maura was trying to establish. Maura helpfully brought her finger closer to Jane's lips, and Jane finally parted them enough to let Maura's fluff-covered finger slip inside. She groaned instantly, shutting her eyes and thus completely missing the look of absolute desire on Maura's face. The moment Jane's tongue had swirled around her finger, Maura had stepped even closer, eliminating any distance between them as she put her other hand on Jane's waist and hooked one leg around her.

"You like it?" Maura whispered, slowly pulling out her finger. When Jane opened her eyes, she could only nod. "Well maybe you could help me, then," Maura said, stepping back slightly. "You see, when I put this outfit together, I completely forgot jewelry, and well…" She laughed airily. "I feel naked without it." Raising an eyebrow, she held the jar of fluff up to Jane. "Help me out?"

Catching on, Jane took the jar and said, "Sure thing. Hm… maybe a necklace?"

"Oh yes, I love necklaces," Maura said, nodding as Jane dipped her own finger into the fluff and drew a line of it down from one side of Maura's neck past her collar bone, then up to the other side. "Give me a pendant, Jane. A low one. Thin necklaces are cheap."

Jane hesitantly pursed her lips but then complied, leaving a large dollop of fluff just above the top of Maura's makeshift bra, between her breasts. She gulped heavily, not sure how she was going to be able to keep it together when Maura asked her to lick it off.

"Earrings might be nice, too," Maura said.

"Sure. Yeah." Jane got some more material, then faltered, not sure how to make the fluff stick and not fall off. "Uh… how would you feel about gauges?" she eventually asked, basically coating Maura's lobes with the stuff. When she pulled back, she sucked the excess fluff off her finger before giving Maura the opportunity to offer to do it herself. "Hm… no. Not a good look for you."

"No?"

"Nah. You should go for something else."

"If you say so."

_Okay. This isn't a big deal. You just need to do it_. Unconsciously licking her lips, Jane leaned forward and closed her lips around one of Maura's earlobes. She both felt and heard Maura's breath hitch beneath her, and feeling encouraged, worked the lobe between her lips, employing her tongue to make sure she had gotten all of the white residue. Her hands were possessively at Maura's hips while Maura clutched onto her shoulders, and they both dimly realized the impracticality of plastic-wrap clothing—Maura had already worked up a sweat, and subsequently the wrap was sticking and bunching tightly in some places while sliding in others. (At least those corn husks were keeping in place, and for Jane's sake, it had probably been a good idea to tape down the cupcake wrappers.) When Jane moved to the other ear she nipped lightly at it with her teeth, earning a quick, stifled "mmph" from Maura, who was fighting to stay standing.

"Couch," she choked out.

"What?" Jane breathed, pulling back.

"Let's move," Maura whispered, her breathing shallow as she took Jane's hand and led her on weak legs the few steps over to the couch. She sat one of the arms and couldn't be cute anymore: "Finish the job, Jane."

"As you wish," Jane muttered, with a smirk. She ran her tongue along the fluff-necklace she had put on Maura, and felt a surge of arousal as Maura put her arms around Jane's neck and moaned appreciatively. Any one of these things could have probably put Jane over the edge—the noises Maura was making, the hot skin beneath her tongue, Maura's fingernails digging into the bare skin of her back —and combined, Jane was just impressed with herself for not passing out.

"Wait," Maura gasped when the only fluff left was the thick drop just above her cleavage. She waited until Jane looked her in the eye, patiently waiting further instruction. "I want to taste it," she managed to get out.

Again it took a moment for Jane to figure out what exactly she needed to do, and once she did, she didn't give herself time to really think about it. She bent down and did her best to lick up the fluff without swallowing it, then shifed quickly upwards and initiated a bruising kiss, letting Maura taste the sweetness on her tongue. Maura reacted exactly the way she feared she would, which is to say, she fell backwards onto the couch, nearly bringing Jane with her. She propped herself up quickly on her elbows, gasping for lost breath as Jane silently surveyed her from behind the arm of the couch. Maura remained where she was as Jane went back to the kitchen, grabbing the marshmallow fluff and circling back.

"I hope you don't take this the wrong way," Jane said, getting on her knees next to the couch, "but I think you could use some perfume."

Maura shifted into a sitting position, very pleased that Jane was starting to feel a little more comfortable playing around. "Do you?"

"Yes, I do."

She had planned on "spritzing" Maura's wrists and behind her ears, but she never progressed further than the pulse point on Maura's neck. When she had started sucking on it, she suddenly remembered her promise to brand Maura, and she became determined to leave the most hardcore hickey Danny Albright (or anyone else) had ever seen. She was straddling Maura, one hand clutching the back of her neck while the other rested on her hip, and Maura's hands were gripping the backs of Jane's thighs, holding on desperately for dear life.

"Jane," she whimpered. "Jane, please…"

"Please what?"

"I'm going t… I'm…"

Jane pulled back, and Maura gave a great shudder, eyes screwed shut and jaw clenched before a small, gasping moan escaped her. Before Jane could make any inquiries, Maura shifted beneath her, pushing Jane onto her back on the couch. The aluminum irritated her shoulders, but she didn't complain as Maura slipped onto her knees on the floor, picking up the jar Jane had discarded a while ago. "It's my turn," she breathed, using her finger to leave a trail of fluff from below Jane's navel up to the bottom of her halter-top. Every inch of her body was throbbing in anticipation as she grinned wickedly at Jane, setting the jar aside and clambering up onto the couch again. She settled herself on her knees, Jane's long legs between her own, before sweeping her hair to one side and pressing her tongue to Jane's stomach, smirking to herself as Jane's body jerked involuntarily beneath her. Jane was propped up on her elbows, mouth slightly open in shock at how stimulating this visual was, of Maura, barely-dressed and licking something off her body, inadvertently giving Jane complete access and permission to stare at her chest.

"Don't stop," she pleaded breathlessly when the fluff was gone.

"As you wish," Maura threw back at her with a playful smile. She was going to reach for the jar again, but decided against it when she realized how sweaty Jane had become. _She got this worked up because of me. I did this to her. _Need coursed through Maura's veins, a need to rid Jane of the sweat on her body and then bring it back again. She had no idea how far Jane would be willing to let her go, but she took advantage of the girl's openness while it lasted, kissing, nipping, licking the abs and stomach that were practically works of art in their sculpted perfection.

It was too much; Jane couldn't take it anymore. She grabbed Maura's arms and yanked her upwards, pulling her into a fierce kiss and Maura was not shy in her reciprocation. After the fact, she would be surprised that her outfit had held together as well as it did, although much of it had ridden up and given Jane access to feel more skin than she ever had before.

The most intense make-out session of their relationship ended when Maura accidentally tore one of the foil straps of Jane's top. Jane felt and heard it go, and tried instantly to sit up. Maura knew it had gone too far, and was impressed merely that Jane had been able to let herself go as much as she did. Jane's eyes were dark and her face was flushed as she looked up at Maura, who was also red in the face.

"Great party," Jane whispered after a long silence, brushing her fingers against Maura's cheek.

Maura smiled and covered Jane's hand with her own. "Perfect," she whispered. They looked into each other's eyes a few tortuous moments longer, trying to bring themselves down from the high they had just reached. Jane shifted her hand to the back of Maura's head, threading her fingers through that golden hair and pulling Maura down for a brief, chaste kiss.

Once they broke it off, Maura said seriously, "I think I need to shower."

Jane laughed weakly. "Okay."

They disentangled themselves and Jane averted her gaze as Maura stood up and went into the bathroom. Once she was out of sight, Jane groaned and hunched over, rubbing her neck. _Welcome to college_, she thought, her heart still racing so fast it seemed liable to explode. Eventually she stood up and walked over to the sink, pulling off her halter-top as she went. She splashed some cold water onto her chest, stomach, and under her arms, knowing that it might kill the smell but would probably not help at all when it came to cooling her down. She then went back to Maura's bedroom, where she had stashed her bag and (real) clothes, pulling her old bra and T-shirt back on, in addition to a pair of underwear and athletic shorts she had brought. She pulled her hair back into a ponytail and rubbed her eyes, suddenly feeling exhausted.

When Maura re-emerged from a longer-than-usual shower, it was to find Jane sitting on the couch reading the remnants of the magazine they had bought. Maura quickly towel-dried her hair and put on an old T-shirt and pair of flannel pajama pants that Angela had given to her one Christmas.

That was why she thought Jane was smirking when she went to join her on the couch, until Jane said, "Oh, _man_. I'd like to see anyone say you're not taken now."

Maura's fingers flew up to the sizeable mark Jane had left on her neck. "You're a caveman," she laughed.

"Only because you want me to be," Jane chuckled, putting down the magazine.

They sat in thoughtful silence for a moment before Maura said, "What is that from, that quote we said? 'As you wish.' Is that from something? It sounds familiar."

"Really, Maura? _The Princess Bride_, come on."

"Oh, that's right. My goodness, I haven't seen that in years." She nodded at the bookcase by their television (which, incidentally, was filled with everything _but _books, from DVD's to board games to a candle so hideously ugly it truly had to be seen and displayed to be believed). "Amber's got it, and I've been meaning to watch it."

"Wait, she has it here?" Jane asked, standing up and walking over to the shelf. "Ooh, look! It's the Dread Pirate Roberts edition! Can we watch it?"

Laughing at Jane's enthusiasm, Maura said, "Of course!"

"No, no, you're supposed to say 'as you wish,'" Jane teased her, taking out the DVD and putting it into the player.

"Why, what's the significance of it?" Maura asked as Jane rejoined her on the couch.

Jane gave her a light kiss before putting a pillow on Maura's lap and laying her head down on it. "It means I love you."

* * *

><p><strong>AN**: Hope that was passable. It'll be fluff (not the literal kind) from here on out. This felt like a big departure from what I've already done with this story and I'm not sure I feel okay about that, odd though it may seem.


	6. Let's Talk

**A/N**: All right guys, I really do mean it now- fluff from here on out. Sorry for deviating from the formula! To atone, I have inserted a random Gilmore Girls quote in this chapter. Enjoy finding it, if you're famliar with the show. If you're not familiar with the show, um... you should be. :)

* * *

><p>It was only 10:30 by the time Jane got home. After <em>The Princess Bride<em>, she and Maura had gotten dressed (Maura wearing a high-collar jacket to hide her souvenir from their make-out session) and gone out for pizza and frozen yogurt, where they had spent an inordinately long amount of time going back for more and more random toppings. They stocked up on cheap movies at a nearby Blockbuster that was going out of business, stopped by a drug store and had a contest to see who could find the cheesiest Hallmark card, then ended their spree by going to a nearby moonlit lake, where Jane tried for the nine-hundredth time to show Maura how to properly skip a rock across the water. When they got back to the suite, they made out for a while before Jane finally left for home.

"Does dad know you took the bike?"

Jane had nearly cried out in alarm when she heard another voice in the garage, and she glared at Frankie when she realized who it was. "Yeah. I needed it."

"So why aren't you staying at Maura's?"

"First day of work in the morning," Jane grumbled, walking past him into the house. "Didn't want to push it. Why are you here, anyway? Why aren't you out with your little friends?"

"I was, then Teresa showed up," Frankie muttered, naming his ex-girlfriend as he followed Jane upstairs to her bedroom. "So?"

"So…?" They had reached the door of her room, and Jane turned around in the frame, indicating that Frankie was not to follow her inside.

In a whisper, he asked, "You slept with her yet?"

It was all she could do to keep from slamming the door in his face. "Good night, Frankie."

The next morning, Maura woke up to the smell of vomit. Blearily opening her eyes, she quickly realized she had fallen asleep on the couch yet again, and it slowly came back to her that she had turned on the TV after Jane had left last night. Somebody, presumably one of her roommates, had since shut it off, but not roused Maura from her state of slumber on the couch. She groaned and sat up to see Stacey lying face down on the carpet next to a pool of semi-dried vomit, which Amber was gamely in the process of trying to clean up.

"Good morning!" she said brightly to Maura, her voice somewhat muffled by the hand towel she had tied around her mouth and nose as she cleaned. "How are you?"

"Feeling a little nauseous," Maura groaned, rubbing her stomach and trying to block out the smell of whatever Stacey had thrown up.

"Yeah, it's kind of gross, isn't it? I have no idea when she got home, but it was sometime after I did. Anyway, you wanna grab the Febreeze from the bathroom? It might help with this." After they had done their best to rid the room of the smell, clean the stain of the carpet, and vainly attempt to move the unconscious Stacey, Maura and Amber decided to sit down to some breakfast. "So how was your night with Jane?" Amber asked with a smirk, raising an eyebrow.

Maura's hand automatically went up to cover the hickey on her neck, which she could tell Amber had been staring at. "Oh, well, Jane got quite out of her comfort zone, I'll say that."

"Yeah? How do you mean?"

"Well for reasons I can't begin to fathom, Jane is very self-conscious about showing me her body. Not just _me_, actually, now that I think about it. Anybody. It's a wonder she ever made it as a lifeguard—she quit, eventually. There was some old lecher always coming around the pool, and she could never prove it, but he ogled her too much for her comfort."

Ignoring this last tidbit, Amber asked, "But why would she be awkward like that around you? I mean, you guys have like… _done_ it, haven't you?"

"It?"

"Yeah. You know." Amber raised her eyebrows. "Sex? You've had sex?"

"Actually, we haven't," Maura said, shrugging.

Amber's eyebrows rose even higher. "Are you serious?"

"Yes." Amber waited for her roommate to elaborate, but Maura continued to just calmly sit there, silently eating her Cheerios, until she finally glanced up and saw that Amber was staring incredulously at her. "Is everything all right? You look very…"

"Surprised?" Amber offered. "Uh—I guess that's because I am. You guys have almost been dating for like… what, three years?"

Maura frowned thoughtfully and rubbed her neck. "Yes. It'll be three years in two weeks, actually."

"So why haven't you…?"

Maura shrugged again. "Jane's not ready."

Amber nodded, but then thought about it, and shook her head. "Okay, see, I would be totally fine believing that and thinking how nice it is that you've got this super-virtuous girlfriend, but—"

"But she's a lesbian, so she's not allowed to be chaste?" Maura cut her off, having heard this argument before.

"No, that's not it!" Amber laughed. "You guys _aren't _chaste! Rachel and Stacey told me all about that kiss I missed the other day, when you guys were reunited—jumping in her arms? Her grabbing your butt? Kissing you hard enough against the door in your room that they could hear it over the television? Oh yeah, they heard it!" she said in a loud voice as Maura bit her lip, looking both mortified and amused at the same time. "And then when she showed up yesterday, getting all possessive and Butt-Grabby McFondle-son again? That's the only reason why I thought you guys had already, like…" She vaguely waved her hands, trying to come up with a phrase as classy as Maura Isles. "Consummated your love."

Smiling at the word choice, Maura said, "Believe me, I am often equally flabbergasted by it, particularly during those times when my hormones feel out of my control. We have come close, very close, and last night was one such instance, but we never seem to get there."

"Wait."

"I'm sorry, am I sharing too much?"

"No, no," Amber quickly said. "Just give me a sec." She chucked her banana peel into the garbage and hurried over to the fridge, grabbing a Slimfast. Quickly opening the bottle, she threw herself back into the chair across the table from Maura and stared at her intently. "Okay. Go."

With a sigh, Maura said, "I've just come to accept it. Are—uh, sorry… have you…?"

"Put me under the category of 'lost it at prom and really wish I hadn't.'"

"Ah. You know, I expected us to lose it then, too. It didn't happen. I'm not sure if it's as typical an occurrence as Hollywood films or the media in general would have us believe. While I acknowledge those aren't generally reliable sources for garnering data or experience, I admit I have occasionally been guilty of falling victim to the tropes and subsequent expectations that are constantly paraded in our face."

"Uh…meaning…"

"Films lied to me about the likelihood of having sex at the prom."

"OH!" Amber suddenly gasped. "I just got _the _best idea ever! Are you free tonight? I don't care; cancel your plans. Stacey and Rachel will have to, too. We're having a girls' night in and watching _Crossroads_."

Maura raised an eyebrow. "Huh. All right. Jane's working tonight, anyway."

"Working? Like work, or schoolwork?"

"I think she's going to try and do both, if she can," Maura laughed. "Poor thing, she's pulling two jobs. She started this morning on her campus' custodial crew, and tonight she's going back to an Italian Ices place she's worked at for a year and a half. I hate that she has to work Saturdays, but it was the only way she could get Sundays off, and as she was raised Catholic, I think she likes the idea of not working on the Sabbath."

"Hm…you think that's why she's hesitant about all the sex stuff?"

"Well, that's the thing. As you so astutely pointed out, she's _not_ hesitant about a lot of things. That's what I was going to say before, in that she's not shy about getting me very stimulated now and then."

Amber slowly lowered the Slimfast from her mouth and gave Maura a scrutinizing look. "_How _stimulated?"

"Stimulated enough."

"Wow. With clothes still involved? That, my friend, is impressive!"

Maura perked up. "Friend?"

"What?"

"You just called me your friend!"

Deciding it wouldn't be prudent to point out that it had been merely a figure of speech, Amber tried (and failed) to suppress a sort of sad smile at the way Maura had leapt at the word like an anxious puppy. "Of course! Dude, come on, we're friends. And we're going to solidify it by going out for pizza tonight with Stacey and Rach, and then going by this Italian Ices place to see Jane before we watch _Crossroads_. Unless you think she'd mind us dropping by?"

"No, I don't think she'd mind," Maura said brightly. "That sounds like a lovely plan!"

And it indeed it was. A few hours later, Rachel finally came home, tripped over Stacey's passed-out body where Amber and Maura had left it, and asked if anything fun was going on that night. She had only gotten moderately drunk at the party, but even so, didn't feel like doing anything too raging and crazy. When Stacey eventually came to, she said all she wanted to do was get some Advil, pizza, and a movie.

They spent dinner debating whether or not there were any merits to the _Star Wars _prequels, something even Maura was able to weigh in on once she realized they weren't talking about Ronald Reagan's Strategic Defensive Initiative. (What she failed to explain was that, having little interest in science fiction herself, the only reason she could contribute to a _Star Wars _conversation at all was because the Rizzoli's had been life-long fans, and she had been forced to listen to many a detailed argument between Jane and her brothers vis-à-vis certain plot points.) Maura had considered texting Jane earlier to say she and her roommates would be coming by the place where she worked, but the other girls convinced her to leave it a surprise.

"I'm just so glad you all like her," Maura said happily as Amber drove them across town. "Granted, you haven't actually… well, interacted with her very much, but she thought you all seemed nice."

"Hey, I just appreciate having someone around who's like, almost my height," said the quite-tall, red-headed, blue-eyed Stacey. "It's like looking in a mirror."

"Yes," Rachel said, rolling her eyes. "You guys look exactly alike."

A few minutes later they reached Tony's Italian Ices (a place actually owned and started by someone named Joshua Rosenbaum, Jane had been scandalized to discover). When Stacey walked in first, followed by Rachel and Amber, Jane saw them as they came in and tried to place them. She only got it for sure when Maura brought up the rear, smiling guiltily. The place was relatively busy, and as the girls waited on line, Jane could feel four pairs of eyes tracking her every movement. It was quite distracting and she very nearly mussed up an order of a lemon ice—its color reminded her forcibly of the fluff she and Maura had licked off each other the previous night, and the dreams that had resulted it from it. Fortunately two other people were helping Jane out, and shortening the time before Maura and her roommates arrived at the register.

"Hey guys," Jane said with a crooked smile. "How goes it?"

"It goes good!" Rachel answered.

"_Well_," Jane and Maura corrected her in unison.

"Awww, they're being grammar Nazi's together!" Stacey said, pretending to fan herself. "Totes adorbs!"

"What language was _that_?" Maura asked, looking thoroughly confused.

"Eighth grade girl," Rachel said, waving her hand dismissively. "Anywho, Jane, I hope you don't mind that we came by here. We all needed something cool, and Maura happened to mention that you worked here."

"Hey, of course I don't mind," Jane said with a shrug. "I've actually got a break due soon—uh, one of my friends was actually going to come by, but you guys should stick around and meet him! Until then, though, what can I get you?" The roomies ordered as speedily as possible, and when they reached the cash register, Jane looked over to make sure her nearest coworker was preoccupied (which she was, with an eight-year-old birthday boy and his unruly friends), before saying, "This one's on Tony, okay?"

"Aw, thanks," Maura said. "I suppose it wouldn't be fitting to kiss you while you're on the job? Even if it's just in appreciation?"

"Yeahhh, probably better not push it," Jane said with a grin. "Go grab a table; I'll be with you guys in a minute."

It was actually another four and a half minutes before Jane joined them, a technicality Maura had fully intended to point out before Jane's first move was to give her an exaggerated kiss. She sat down with a goofy grin, not needing to explain that the over-the-top move had been to compensate for not kissing Maura a few moments ago. "Sorry, guys," she apologized to Maura's roommates. "I don't want to be that obnoxious girlfriend who's so like, obsessive and in-your-face."

"Please," scoffed Amber. "You're not wearing any Red Sox paraphernalia tonight, so as far as I'm concerned, you're all right." (She and Jane would later bond over a surprisingly long conversation about why exactly it had been so stupid to off Darth Maul in the first _Star Wars _prequel, and as far as either Jane was concerned, anyone who could join in such a conversation with her in such impressive detail wasn't a totally bad person.)

"Do you like working here?" Rachel asked. "I feel like I'd gain five hundred pounds."

"Nah, it's cool," Jane said with a shrug, putting her arm casually around Maura's shoulders. "I don't get too carried away with squirreling away free ices."

"Really?" Amber asked, feigning surprise. "Because you look so overweight…"

Jane just laughed. "This job's actually quite a bit of a work out—well, for my right arm, anyway," she said, flexing said limb. "It's gotten considerably stronger than the left."

Amber elbowed Stacey under the table to keep her from making an exceptionally inappropriate joke. "Well, that's cool, then! Hey, when does your shift end? We were gonna head back home and watch _Crossroads_."

"No way! That Britney Spears movie? The one where she's not a girl, not yet a woman?"

"Jane!" Maura laughed, taken aback. "You've seen it?"

"Hello, Zoe Saldana's a _babe _in that movie." Seeing the look on her girlfriend's face, Jane quickly pecked her cheek and said, "Although of course she's a total troll compared to you. As is anyone else. Ever. In the world." She cleared her throat and turned to the other girls, explaining, "My cousin Gianna was _obsessed _with that movie when it came out, and she made me watch it with her all the time. I'd love to come over for a fun nostalgia trip, but I'll be working here until closing, and then I promised my buddy I'd study with him. Hey, Maura?"

"Yes?"

"Could I steal some of your ice?"

"What? No! It's mine!"

"Yeah, but you didn't pay for it," Jane said, reaching for the tiny cup.

"Is that the only reason you let us have these for free?"

"…no." Jane grinned slowly and Maura smiled also, rolling her eyes. "Come on, you can feed me with your little spoon thingy. It'll be adorable."

"But germs."

Their conversation was interrupted when a young and very dashing man entered the establishment, caught Jane's eye and said, "Yo! LL Cool J!"

"Frost! Hey, bro!"

"LL Cool J?" Rachel asked, raising her eyebrows.

Frost came over and hugged Jane, who had stood up to greet him. "Yeah, you know," he said. "Ladies Love Cool Jane!"

"Eh, it's true," Jane said with a shrug, sitting back down next to Maura. "Although J-O-L-M."

"Jane Octagon Leviticis McBeth?" Amber guessed.

Frost pulled over a chair next to Amber's. "Jane Only Loves Maura."

"Oh. That makes more sense."

"A little," Rachel snorted. "Maura, I think I'm going to have to start calling you 'Jolm.' Also, you may as well spoon-feed Jane now, because I really don't think you guys could get any more adorable."

"So you've noticed?" Frost asked. "They can't keep their hands off each other, can they?"

"You know, Frost, did it ever occur to you that you might hold on to girlfriends longer if you started acting affectionately in public?" Jane asked.

"Hey, I'm affectionate! I just don't get obnoxious about it in public. Some girls like discretion."

"And some don't like to even have their hand held or get smiled at?" Jane asked. "Yeah, _that's _romantic."

"Says the girl who yelled 'finally' at the end of _Love Story_," Maura pointed out.

Her roommates all laughed, and Jane said, "You keep telling your friends embarrassing stories about me, and I'll have to reprimand you."

"Guys! Come on!" Frost laughed.

"Jane, you need to cool down," Maura said. "Take me for a walk around the block?"

"It'll have to be a quick one," Jane said, standing up. "Frost's here to catch me up on everything I missed when I was in Italy. Should only take us, what, ten minutes?"

Frost shrugged. "Probably."

Jane clapped him on the shoulder and followed Maura over to the door, stepping quickly in front of her to hold it open. (They might have worried about the awkwardness of leaving Frost alone with three girls he didn't know, but both Maura and Jane were confident that he would be in his element, and they were right.) Maura reached for Jane's hand, squeezing it gently. "Sorry I never gave you some of my Italian Ice. Would you like some?"

"Sure," Jane chuckled, stopping them both. She took the little spoon when Maura held it out to her, scooped up some of the cherry-flavored ice and said, "Heads up!" With a laugh, she did her best to smear it on top of Maura's lips. Though Maura looked amused, Jane quickly realized it would probably be best to get rid of the stuff before the red leaked onto the very-nice ensemble Maura was wearing. She ducked and caught Maura's bottom lip between both her own, sucking the flavor into her mouth. The cup fell out of Maura's hands and she grabbed the collar of Jane's shirt, pulling her closer, encouraging Jane to poke her tongue out and lap up the ice that had dripped onto Maura's chin. But they were still on the sidewalk (albeit a mostly bare one), so before things got too heated, Jane broke off the kiss and whispered, "You are so delicious."

"So are you," Maura said back, a little breathless. She carefully studied Jane's eyes as Jane looked at her with pure adoration. Amber had brought up a good point this morning, and one that Maura found herself considering more and more. Why didn't Jane want to sleep with her? Was there more at work than "I'm not ready"? Was there an ulterior motive, some kind of message there? It always seemed obvious that Jane wanted her, lusted after her—she knew how much she could get Maura riled up, she often copped a feel …so what was the problem?

Every time Maura found herself doubtful or concerned, all she needed to do was really look at Jane, like this, right now. There was no empirical evidence to support this feeling—and sex certainly wasn't a prove-all, end-all, either—but Maura could always find herself reassured of Jane's feelings for her just in these moments. She knew Jane would do anything for her that she needed. She knew Jane would give up any number of things for her happiness. She knew there was nothing Jane enjoyed more than spending time with her. She knew, simply, that Jane loved her. She knew Jane loved her weird little quirks, her actively working brain, her penchant for fashion. Jane knew her deepest fears and her most closely-guarded desires. In turn, Maura knew of the aspirations Jane sometimes felt nervous sharing with other people. She knew Jane's secrets—everything from the time that she had once flushed a rosary down the toilet as a child to the fact that the season finale of _Downton Abbey _had made her cry.

"Jane," Maura whispered, lifting her hand to caress Jane's cheek. It didn't occur to her that Jane hadn't been following her train of thought, and that it came essentially out of nowhere when she said, "I want you to know that I trust you."

That could have meant a great deal of things, but Jane got the feeling it was about her hesitancy. Last night she had pushed the boundary, and Maura, instead of being upset with her for stopping, had been patient and understanding. As always. "Thank you," she said softly, leaning in for a kiss. "I love you."

"I know," Maura whispered against her lips. "And I love you, too."

They never _did _quite get their walk. They just kissed a little bit more, stopping only when people came close to passing them on the sidewalk. After about five minutes, Jane said that she really ought to get back, so they returned to Tony's hand-in-hand.

When they reached the table they had left their friends at, Frost was just finishing up an anecdote that had Maura's roommates rolling with laughter: "…and so he keeps getting more and more ridiculous, right? Like stuffed bears, chocolates, everything—it was freaking embarrassing, man, I'm telling you. And then he pimped out Maura's car with like a racing stripe, and leopard-skin covers for the seats, and Jane—oh, Jane!" he said when he noticed she was standing grimly over his shoulder. "I was just telling these fine ladies about how you finally decided to let everyone know Maura was your girl."

"Giovanni Gilberti: irrefutable proof that humans evolved from monkeys," Jane grumbled, folding her arms. She figured she ought to finish the story: "Maura's car needed fixing, and Ma suggested she go to Gilberti's—I think she really thought Maura and Giovanni would like each other? I dunno. But it was like a week after we had decided to be together, so it was still pretty new, and we'd only told our really good friends. But man, I almost felt sorry for that dumbass, you know?"

"So what'd you do?" Rachel giggled.

"We went to the shop to pick up Maura's car, he tried hitting on her, and I knew I had two choices: knock his teeth out, or explain that Maura was already seeing somebody."

"She did it a little more subtly then than she did last night," Maura said, lowering the collar of her jacket to reveal the monster hickey.

"Damn, Rizzoli!" Frost laughed, high-fiving her. "Way to be!"

"Way indeed," Maura chuckled, giving Jane a quick kiss on the cheek. "Girls, we should probably go. Jane's got a lot of work to catch up on before her shift starts again."

"And after," Jane sighed, plunking down in the chair next to Frost.

"Yo, Amber," Frost said as the girls stood up, preparing to leave. "Got any plans for next weekend?"

"No," she said with a broad smile.

He gave her the cheesiest wink he could and said, "You do now."

They quickly exchanged numbers, and once the giggling gaggle of roommates left the shop, Jane said, "Amber's cool, man, but I feel obligated to point out that she's a Yankees fan _and _a Republican."

Frost frowned thoughtfully. "I could get into that," he said seriously. "I mean hey, if a certified science geek and a dumb jock can have true love, who can't?"

And Jane had to give him that one.


	7. Old Dogs and New Tricks

**A/N**: Sorry it's been a while since the last update, guys! I didn't realize how long it had been. I do still enjoy writing this, I swear. Just had a little bump in the road, I guess. I swear this is the last time I'll bring it up, but if you're still wondering why I don't want to bring sex into this story, all I can suggest doing is checking out an episode of mtv's _Daria_ called "My Night at Daria's." It perfectly captures all my feelings towards this issue. I'm putting a link to the episode and its transcript on my tumblr (jobethdalloway dot tumblr dot com). Okay, now that the preachiness is over, here's two fluffy situations for the price of one!

* * *

><p>"Why would you tell me that?"<p>

"What? Jane, it's true!"

"That doesn't mean you had to tell me!"

"I really think you're overreacting."

"No! Stop! I hate you!"

Stacey had walked into the apartment just in time to hear these last two exchanged barbs, and she paused in the doorway. "Should …I leave?" she asked.

With an impatient sigh, Maura waved her roommate inside and said "No; Jane's just being over-dramatic. All I did was tell her John Wayne never served in the military."

"The…clown murderer guy?"

"_No_, the iconic American cowboy slash soldier movie star!" Jane said.

"Exactly—_movie_ star!" Maura cried as Stacey awkwardly slunk by to get to her room. "He was an actor, Jane! An actor who decided not to go to war and stay in Hollywood! Honestly, I think this is the stupidest thing we've ever fought over."

Jane pouted and folded her arms, still traumatized by this new biographical piece of information. "He didn't enlist. Jimmy freaking Stewart enlisted! If George Bailey enlisted, why didn't _the Duke?_"

"I'm sure he had his reasons," Maura tried to soothe her, starting to feel bad that Jane was taking this so hard. "Perhaps he was contractually obligated to stay in Hollywood and provide morale during the war."

"Maybe," Jane sighed, looking unconvinced. "Man, this is even worse than the time Ma finally told me there was a second tape to _The Sound of Music _VHS and it ended with Nazi's instead of Maria and the Captain's wedding! And Rolfe was one of them!" She groaned at the pitiful look on Maura's face which showed she was desperately trying to sympathize. "Maura, this is one of my childhood heroes you were dissing. It's like if I told you Einstein never won the Nobel Prize."

Maura shuddered at the very thought. "All right, I apologize. John Wayne was an all-American hero rightfully beloved by millions of people. Truce?"

"Truce," Jane snickered, leaning in to give Maura a peck on the cheek. "Do you want to come along for a trip to Target? I can pick up a universal remote for you guys."

The girls had been without a remotes ever since one of Amber's drunken friends had thought it would be funny to steal them, and then forgotten what he'd done with them. Having only just learned about this minor tragedy, Jane had explained to Maura the concept of a universal remote that could magically be programmed to work on both a television and a DVD player. Unfortunately Maura had a ton of studying to do, which meant that as amusing as she often found ventures to Target with Jane to be, she'd have to sit this one out.

She stood up to follow Jane to the door, saying, "Remember to please just make it something I can, you know, easily turn on."

"Oh babe, you've already got me for that," Jane joked, turning and smoothly catching Maura's lips with her own. Maura laughed into the kiss, lifting her arms up and around Jane's shoulders.

Before they could go much further, the door suddenly opened right into them, toppling them both rather ungracefully to the floor. It turned out to be Amber, who had just been saying goodbye to Frost after their lunch date (marking their third date that week). A good laugh was had by all as Frost stepped into offer Jane a hand. He pulled her to her feet, and as Jane gave Maura one more quick kiss goodbye, Frost nodded at Amber and said, "I'll call you later, all right?"

"Okay, yeah, you have my number!" Amber chirped, waving even as Jane and Frost had turned and started walking away. They were out of earshot, but Amber was so flustered with the unexpected success of this budding relationship that she continued rambling: "So yeah, just give me a call. Okay. I'll pick up, and I'll be like, 'Hey Barry, it's Amber…I—"

"Amber, he's gone," Maura said, patting her on the shoulder.

Amber chuckled and shut the door. "Right. Sorry. So! Got any fun plans for tonight?"

"I'll be studying straight through dinner," Maura sighed. "And after it, also. Fortunately I have tomorrow to look forward to."

"What's tomorrow?"

Maura shrugged. "Sunday."

"Ah, your I-don't-have-to-run day?" Amber sang. When all she got was a blank look, she said, "Aw, c'mon, Maura! The Bangles! Didn't you ever get into '80s girls groups? Ah, never mind. Say, you've been studying a ton lately. Like, more than usual. Is it still for that _pre_-pre-med class?"

"Yes. It's the only way I could get into the class that works with cadavers next semester," Maura explained. "Then I'll really live up to my nickname. The one Frost and Jane gave me, I mean—'Queen of the Dead.'"

"And how'd you get that prestigious moniker?" Amber laughed, heading to the fridge for a soda.

"I like dissecting things," Maura said. "Not humans, obviously—until I get into that cadaver class! But, you know, animals we'd find and things like that. It's kind of funny; you'd think since Jane and Frost both act so tough that they'd be fine dissecting frogs in school, but Frost threw up when we did and Jane just asked if I'd take over. I found it fascinating!"

"Nice. So if you're 'Queen of the Dead,' what's that make Jane?"

"Frost has a ton of nicknames for her, but I have my own. She's Queen of the Dry-Hump." The casualness in Maura's tone caused Amber to choke on her Mr. Pibb, which Maura failed to notice only because she had just gotten a text from Jane. "Hmm… Amber, help me out. Pick a number: twenty-six, forty-two, or ninety-three."

"Uh…forty-two?"

"Okay." Maura sent a text back to Jane, and when she noticed Amber's curious expression, said, "Do you remember when I said Jane keeps adding to her list of places and ways she'd like to kiss me?"

"Oh yeah, that was cute!"

"Sometimes when we don't have set plans for a date—a concert or a game or what have you—she'll plan a surprise, and engineer one of those kisses. I know," she said with a grin as her roommate "aww!"ed. "She's a softie. There are some on that list she knows we'll probably never get to, like one on the Great Wall of China or during an audience with the Queen of England, but she has fun coming up with them, anyway. We started doing them in order, but then it became more fun to just jump around, so occasionally she'll text me with some numbers and I'll pick one. I helped her come up with some ideas, but most of them she does on her own, so it'll be more of a surprise for me."

"Sheesh, how many kisses are on this list?"

"Over a hundred and fifty."

"Holy crap! How do you—?"

"Well, she's had a lot of time to think about it," Maura said with a shrug. "And like I said, a lot of the ideas are just jokes for fun. And they used to be much more generic, like 'a kiss in the rain,' where now it would be something more akin to 'a kiss in the rain while we search for the pet cat you threw out of a taxi cab.'" Now it was Amber's turn to stare blankly, and Maura gasped in shock. "Amber! _Breakfast at Tiffany's_! Audrey Hepburn being gorgeous, and Mickey Rooney inexplicably portraying a Japanese man?"

And rather than studying, they spent the next forty minutes discussing the uncomfortable history of white actors playing other races, right up to a controversial debate over the merits of Robert Downey Jr.'s performance in _Tropic Thunder_ that Stacey came out to join them for.

The next day, Maura arrived at the Rizzoli home just after 2:00. Jane was sitting on the porch with a book, and Maura honked to get her attention. Jane glanced up and her jaw dropped at the sight of Maura in a shiny, new black convertible. To be precise, a Mercedes Benz convertible.

"No, no, no," Jane said, when Maura parked and made to get out of the car. "Stay in here for a second. When—when the _hell _did you get this thing?"

"Oh, it's when you were in Italy. My parents traded in my old car for this one as a graduation gift and for being valedictorian," Maura replied as if this was a very typical thing for parents to do. "Since you've been back, we've only been using your car or your dad's bike, so I guess you've never had the chance to see it. Why …why are you looking at this car like you want to make love to it?"

"Because it's the sexiest car I've ever seen," Jane rasped, her hands firm on the top of Maura's door as her eyes swept over it. "And _you _sitting inside it in that red dress is so hot that I think you've melted every ice cube in all the houses on this block."

"Do you really?" Maura mused.

"Not literally, no."

"Are you going to make me stay in here, or can I get out?"

Jane took a big step back, appraising the image of Maura in the convertible a bit longer. "Okay. You can get out now," she teased, and Maura rolled her eyes as she stepped out of the car. "And babe, as freaking sexy as you look in that dress, you'll have to change in order for us to get to number forty-two today."

"Into what?"

"Borrow something from me—whatever would horrify you the least."

A difficult task indeed. Maura eventually settled on a pair of jeans she could roll up at the bottom and an old Gap hoodie over one of Jane's tank tops. As they walked back through the house towards the backyard, Maura noticed how quiet it was.

"Where's your family?"

Holding the back door open for Maura, Jane replied, "Ma and Pop went to are at a matinee and then they're going to dinner. I sent Tommy and Frankie to a friend's house for the evening so they won't make fun of you."

"Make fun of me?" Maura asked, following Jane to the garage. "They've seen me in your clothes before…"

"That's true," Jane chuckled. "But they've never seen you on one of these." She kicked the tail end of a skateboard, sending it up into her hand.

"Jane, no," Maura said nervously, backing up as Jane smirked. "I won't be any good at it!"

"Not right away, probably not," Jane conceded. "But that's why you need to give it a shot. C'mon, Maura, live a little. It's fun, I promise."

Maura's fear of skateboards was such that she had barely ever been able to bring herself to watch Jane do it. The same summer they had met, when Jane had been lifeguarding, Maura had been able to secure a job in a first aid office near a skate park. She saw so many accidents of so many degrees in terms of blood, bruising, and the occasional protruding bone, that when Jane told her how much she loved skateboarding, Maura could hardly stand to watch.

"Look, I know what you're thinking," Jane said, leading Maura down the driveway towards the sidewalk. "But those punks you spent a couple months stitching up never wore pads or anything. They think they're too cool."

"Well—_you're_ not wearing any," Maura pointed out.

"Of course not, I'm too cool. Now just relax for a second, okay? Stand right here and promise not to hyperventilate. Unless the sight of me on a skateboard leaves you so breathless that you might actually die without paper-bagging it. Deal?" She clapped Maura on the shoulder and stepped on the skateboard. "Just watch how I do it, okay? 'Cause then it'll be your turn."

Watching Jane skateboard was one thing, but trying to focus on her technique was entirely impossible. Maura did not understand how Jane thought something as inanimate as a car could be sexy. Sexy was Jane Rizzoli weaving down a sidewalk on a skateboard, hands in her pockets, black hair flying behind her, restrained only slightly by a backwards Red Sox cap. She kept her knees almost cartoonishly bent, and Maura wasn't sure if this was being done to amuse her or if that was really proper technique. When Jane reached the end of the sidewalk, she made a smooth turn and came rolling back, stooping to pick up a small crate at the end of the driveway when she reached it.

"See? No inclines, no hills, no bumps—it's all one smooth ride," she said, getting off the board and holding up the crate. "So now it's your turn."

Inside the crate were some elbow pads, knee pads, and a helmet that may have recently housed several spiders for how dirty it looked. "I can't wear that," Maura said flatly.

"Don't be silly, of course you can."

"I'll get helmet hair!"

"Tell you what. We'll make out later and I'll mess your hair up so bad, nobody will even notice."

Narrowing her eyes, Maura reluctantly pulled out the gear and started strapping it on. "If anything happens to me, you'll be paying my hospital bills."

"Says the girl whose parents got her a Mercedes-Benz? Yeah, I don't think so," Jane snorted, tossing the crate onto the lawn. She could not contain a laugh once Maura had put all the pads in place and was now looking warily at the helmet. "Gosh, Maura, you look so dang cute! I wish you could put your hair in a couple of braids; that's about all we need."

"Oh, shut up," Maura sighed, strapping the helmet in place.

"No really, I think you'd look adorable," Jane said, leaning in and rubbing her nose against Maura's before giving her a quick peck. "All right, git up on here."

"How did I let you talk me into this so quickly?" Maura groaned.

"Let's see. I believe it's a combination of my face, my abs, my legs, and the fact that I talk like this," Jane said in the most sensual voice she could muster, putting particular low emphasis on the last three words.

Maura laughed. "Yes, thank you for not using your bewitching powers for _evil_."

"Hey, you know me. I'm a charmer most of the time. I just think your skateboard-phobia has gone on long enough. Now get on." She took Maura's hand and gently led her up. The moment Maura put a foot on the board, it rolled forward a fraction of an inch. The unexpected movement startled Maura so badly that she practically shrieked, causing Jane to cry out in alarm, and Maura fell forward, sending them crashing onto the grass. "Ow," Jane groaned.

"Sorry!" Maura whimpered, though she didn't move from her position on top of Jane. "I told you I'd be bad at this!"

"You just got nervous," Jane said. "It's okay; that's why I started us off towards the grass here." She reached up and gave Maura a reassuring kiss on the lips, intending it to be short. But as usual, Maura would have none of that, and she deepened the kiss, stroking Jane's slightly-dirtied cheek. She smiled as she felt more than heard an aroused rumble from Jane's throat. The kiss came to an abrupt end when Jane tried to put a hand on the back of Maura's head and it bumped into the helmet—she couldn't contain a loud laugh. "Aw, man. Anyway, Maura, this was my forty-second idea for a first kiss. I was going to teach you how to skateboard, and if you fell, I'd kiss you to make you forget the pain."

"To be fair, I think you're probably in a bit more pain than I am at the moment," Maura said. "Since I fell on you and you're not wearing any protective gear."

"True. We'll have to be more careful this time. Any time you fall, I'm gonna kiss you."

"Then what would be my incentive to really try?"

"Good point. All right, get up. New deal: I'll kiss you if you can successfully stay on this skateboard without my help for longer than three seconds."

As they got to their feet, Maura frowned. "And if I can't?"

Jane shrugged. "If you can't be even a _little _bit butch? Then we'll forget it and I'll do something femme for you."

Maura smiled. Their little wagers rarely ended with her having to do anything regardless of the turnout, because Jane was always eager to do things for her. "What'd you have in mind?"

"First kiss number twenty-six. When I was in Italy, my aunt taught me and Gianna how to make this legit meat sauce for spaghetti, and I thought I'd try out the recipe on you. And then we could have ourselves a nice _Lady and the Tramp_ little moment." She grinned and raised her eyebrows, but her smile faltered when Maura just stared at her in confusion. "Please tell me you've seen that movie."

"It…_sounds_ familiar…"

"Maura, are you serious? It's Disney!"

"Are there princesses in it?"

"No!"

"Well that explains it, then. I only liked the ones with princesses in it. I'm sure we've had this conversation before; I distinctly remember you admitted to me that _The Little Mermaid _used to make you cry."

"I guess you just failed to mention that you'd never seen _Lady and the Tramp_, a treasured classic. You are _so _not a dog person," Jane chuckled. "Okay, I know we have the VHS somewhere. We'll dig it up while I'm making dinner."

"You're feeling pretty confident about this whole concept of me not being able to stand alone on a skateboard for longer than three seconds, aren't you?"

"Ohhh yeah. Now let's try again."

Somewhat more prepared this time, Maura was able to successfully actually stand on the board. She felt incredibly wobbly, and Jane knew there would bruises or at least marks on her skin where Maura was currently digging her nails in for support, but she didn't mind. With Maura's permission, Jane took a small step forward, gently pulling Maura along on the skateboard, her grip tightening in correlation.

"I _should've_ had you stay in your dress," Jane chuckled as they made their way incrementally down the sidewalk. "That would've been hilarious."

"Maybe next time," Maura snorted.

"Hey, you know what this is making me think of? That song 'Sk8r Boi.' Or… do you know it? I mean I know you were in France when Avril Lavigne was like, a thing."

"Please!" Maura laughed. "We couldn't escape that song even across the Atlantic. It seemed like every girl I went to school with knew it by heart. It was inevitable that I would memorize it, as well. I think I still know the words."

"Thank you for not sticking your nose up at me just because I wear baggy clothes," Jane said.

"Well you stopped once you started letting me dress you," Maura pointed out. "But you're welcome, and I really—OH MY GOD WHAT ARE YOU DOING, DON'T LET GO!"

Jane doubled in laughter due more to Maura's sudden outburst than to the way she was flailing on the skateboard before falling over onto the sidewalk. "Babe, are you okay?" Jane wheezed, walking over.

"Besides my abandonment issues? Yes, I'm fine," Maura said, taking Jane's hand to pull herself up.

"You're too spazzy. You gotta loosen up."

"Babe, cut me a break today, please?" Maura pouted, and when Jane turned to look at her a bit more sympathetically, Maura knew getting what she wanted was now only a technicality. She stuck out her lower lip ever so slightly and curved her eyebrows upwards. Combine this with her mussed-up hair stuck under a helmet with faded printed flowers on it, and Jane was nearly a goner. What tipped the scales was Maura holding up her index finger and saying, "I don't have a pad for this and I hurt it when I fell."

"You and your womanly wiles," Jane chuckled, taking Maura's hand briefly pressing her lips to the finger in question. "I guess I can't ask more of you today. You did good, Isles. Pat yourself on the back."

"I need a shower," Maura groaned, putting her arm across Jane's shoulder once Jane had picked up the board.

"You can borrow some shampoo if you want. It's none of your fancy-ass stuff, but I do have some conditioner if you'd like to borrow that as well."

Maura took Jane up on the offer, and as she showered, Jane searched vainly for her old copy of _Lady and the Tramp_. Finally she checked online and saw that somebody had posted the movie in its entirety, so she pulled it up and waited for it to load as she went about getting the ingredients she'd need for the meat sauce. She wound up having forty minutes to kill before Maura came downstairs, her hair mostly dry and wearing another of Jane's outfits—this time some Red Sox sweatpants and an old Little League shirt Jane had kept for sentimental reasons.

"I think I've been good enough to earn the right to make a request," Maura said.

"Yes ma'am," Jane murmured.

"If you're cooking me dinner, you need to dress the part." Maura walked over to a peg which held a number of aprons, bypassing the "Kiss the Cook" one for a musty, small blue apron all the way in the back. "Goodness, what's this?"

"Oh, that's just one of the boys being funny," Jane snorted. "Ma doesn't keep that one out, most of the time. I made it in Home Ec in eighth grade—way too small and the stitching's awful, as you can see. I told Ma she didn't need to keep it, but I guess since it's one of the only girly things I've ever done, she wanted evidence of it. Even if it _does _spend most of its life in the attic."

"Put it on," Maura purred, pulling it out and looping the top of it over Jane's head.

Jane raised an eyebrow as she straightened it out. "Ooh, yeah, my eighth grade sewing skills. They turning you on?"

It had been a joke, but nobody would've guessed that by looking at Maura's expression. As her eyes roved down Jane's body, she bit down on her lip before saying, "Sorry, it's just… you're wearing shorts, and since they're covered by the apron, I can pretend you're half-naked."

Looking down, Jane laughed, "Heh, you're right! Um—anyway, look! I found the movie on youtube! Let's watch it before those Disney watchdogs take it down."

Maura stepped out of the way for Jane to reach her computer and put it on the counter. The movie was cute, and she found it particularly adorable when Jane would whistle along to the soundtrack, probably not even consciously, as she bustled about the kitchen. Jane had ditched her hat and pulled her hair back into a ponytail, and as was so often the case, Maura found herself being hypnotized by its movement. For the most part she kept her eyes on the computer screen, but she couldn't keep them from darting back to her girlfriend now and then. She asked Jane if the Italian stereotypes in the movie had ever offended her family, but Jane just shrugged and said she thought it was harmless—no more offensive than making a Scottish terrier have a Scottish accent.

The timing worked out just enough so that when the spaghetti and sauce was fully prepared, the movie had reached the sequence Jane had been waiting for. Unfortunately, Maura was not as sutured into the romantic atmosphere of it as Jane would've hoped: "How does Tony understand what the Tramp is saying? Don't they have any human customers? How can they afford to be lavishing this much attention on dogs? Oh my gosh, are they about to—"

"Sing, yes," Jane said. "Maura, it's a cartoon about talking dogs. Don't get all caught up in the details now, you're killing me!"

"Right, sorry," Maura said, turning to look at the plate Jane had set in front of her. "Oh, Jane! This smells wonderful! But I don't think I can eat this much."

"Of course not," Jane said, handing her a fork. "You'll notice I only put out the one bowl."

"Ah."

The movie kept playing as they waited for the sauce to cool off, and tempting though it was to watch Jane watch the movie, Maura forced herself to look as the dogs accidentally picked up the same strand of spaghetti and met in an unplanned kiss.

"Aw, that was cute," Maura said softly.

"I thought so, yeah," Jane whispered. She caught Maura's eye and twirled some spaghetti around her fork. "So eat up."

It was hard to keep concentrating on the movie and eat at the same time, much less try and pick up the same spaghetti strand at the same time. About five minutes later, they stopped the movie by mutual consent and conversed quietly over their dinner. Another five minutes passed, and they had yet to strike the same strand, but Jane noticed a small bit of sauce near the corner of Maura's mouth.

Rather than hand her a napkin, Jane leaned forward and said, "You've got something right there…" and she planted a short kiss just shy of Maura's lips. She felt Maura shudder beneath her before pulling away again.

"Jane, I don't know how you do it," she said softly. "But every time you kiss me, you always make me feel so… I don't know, you make me _feel_. Everything."

"It's 'cause I love you," Jane whispered.

Maura shook her head. "It's more than that, it must be. Maybe it's because I love you back, so much. I don't know what I did to deserve …you."

"Likewise," Jane chuckled. "Hey, come on, let's forget this." She shifted the remaining spaghetti to one side of the large bowl and then used a couple of prongs on her fork to pull out one strand. Getting the drift, Maura teased out the other end of the same strand. "Don't twirl it," Jane said, "just lift it up. Get it in your mouth."

Those words alone were causing Maura to tremble in anticipation, and she found herself blushing as she tried to get the pasta in her mouth—it was very distracting to have Jane's dark eyes watching her. Jane was grateful they had stayed sitting on the stools by the counter instead of moving to the table; it would make holding her much easier when they got close enough. Both of them struggled not to accidentally bite down too quickly, and when it got close, Jane finally stood and closed the gap between them. For a brief moment, her mouth pressed against Maura's and they both sucked in, trying to be the one who got the most of the strand. Jane grinned, feeling Maura laugh into their kiss, and she bit down gently to finally sever the pasta. Her teeth grazed Maura's bottom lip, earning her a soft moan, and she bit down with a little more pressure before sweeping her tongue into Maura's mouth.

Still on the stool, Maura wrapped her legs around Jane's waist and her arms around the girl's neck, pulling her impossibly closer. The fingers of one hand curled at the nape of Jane's neck while the other hand buried itself in dark hair, trying to focus on each moment as it came. For her part, Jane was barely conscious of what she was doing; it was always hard to get cognition going when Maura's tongue was rolling around hers, when the air felt too thick to breathe in.

Suddenly the door from the backyard banged open, and Maura nearly fell off the stool. Jane looked up and glared daggers at her brothers, who had just walked in with two of their friends, both of whom looked as though they had just stumbled into nirvana.

"What the hell are you guys doing home?" Jane almost shouted.

"We're gonna play Halo," Tommy said. "But uh, don't let us stop you!"

"Get downstairs, this ain't a peep show!" Jane snarled, grabbing Tommy by the scruff of his shirt and yanking him in the direction of the basement. Her slightly more responsible brother brought up the rear after their friends, and Jane said, "Really, Frankie? You couldn't have like texted or something to let me know you guys were coming back?"

"Sorry," he laughed, holding his hands up in surrender. "How were we supposed to know you guys would be going at it like dogs?"

* * *

><p><strong>AN**: Thanks for reading! Please review if you're enjoying it :) Also, please feel free to give me suggestions for more fluff. The skateboard half of this was inspired by an idea that xerizzles posted on tumblr!


	8. Still On the Square

**A/N**: Sorry I suck at updating this. I do still like it, I swear. Since it's not a continuous plot-driven story, I don't really feel the need to write it frequently, but I do enjoy returning to it now and then. Thanks to everyone who encouraged me to add on.

* * *

><p>The fun thing about living with Maura Isles was that you never really knew what sorts of crazy, random questions she was going to ask you. One evening a couple of weeks into October, Stacey was studying in the living room and Maura was scouring the Internet when, after nearly twenty minutes of silence, she asked, "Stacey? What's your favorite silent movie?"<p>

"Uh…what?"

"Your favorite silent movie. Or is it hard for you to choose?"

Stacey stared blankly at her for a few moments. "Uh… yeah …it is. Probably because I've never seen one, outside of maybe like two minutes from a Charlie Chaplin movie in a history class once."

Maura gasped in horror. "Goodness, what is our generation coming to? I was hoping it was just Jane! I may have to educate you _all_…"

"Why'd you bring it up?"

"Oh, just a little tradition Jane and I started when we began dating," Maura chuckled. "We got together the week before Halloween, you know, and Jane said for our first actual Halloween together we should stay in and watch a movie. And she suggested _It_, and I said that would work great because I owned it."

"_It_, like the killer clown movie?"

"Well, that's what she meant. I thought she was referring to _It_, a silent Clara Bow film from 1927 that has always been one of my favorites, ever since I went through a phase where I was fascinated with flappers." Over Stacey's hysterical laughter, Maura said, "Yes, that was essentially Jane's reaction, also. She couldn't believe I owned and loved a movie about a killer clown, and _I _couldn't believe that she was eager to watch a silent movie. And we were both right not to believe it! But Jane very sweetly agreed to watch my _It_ since I liked it so much, and you know what, she didn't hate it."

"Really!"

"Really. Of course then we had to watch _her _version of _It_, and I had nightmares for weeks. But now our tradition is one of her scary movies for one of my silent movies, and there you have it. We do the silent movie on our anniversary or the day after, and the scary movie on actual Halloween, but we may have to switch it around this time—our anniversary is tomorrow and I still haven't chosen a movie yet! I've been so caught up with homework. Hm… maybe I'll shake things up a bit and suggest a scary silent movie?"

"Did they make those? I mean, are they really actually scary?"

"Clearly you've never seen _Nosferatu_."

"Nosfer…who-tu?"

Stacey could at least take comfort in knowing that hearing an impromptu lecture on the history of the depiction of vampires in pop culture was far more interesting than Maura's past attempts to educate her roommates on the wonders of quantum mechanics or bioengineering. It was hard to say exactly how much time had passed before the orating was interrupted by Stacey's boyfriend, who had come to pick her up for a date. Left on her own again, Maura returned to looking up silent movies she hadn't seen in a while. This led to a rare occurrence of Youtubing (she was shocked to see so many great short films were in the public domain), and before she knew it, it was past two in the morning.

Figuring she ought to call it a night even if she had no classes in the morning, Maura started getting ready for bed. She missed not being able to talk to Jane as much as she used to, but Jane had gotten a third job which seriously limited her free time. Against her mother's wishes, she had started working the night shift three times a week at a local gas station, because she figured that with her occasional bouts of insomnia, if she couldn't sleep, she might as well get paid for it. It was mind-numbing work, but again, at least there was money involved. Angela and Maura had tried to get Jane to at least drop one of her other jobs, but with characteristic Rizzoli stubbornness, Jane had insisted she could handle the load—even if one of those other jobs was early-morning custodial crew for her school, meaning she got about two hours of sleep in the early morning and whatever she could catch between classes.

This was a rare night where none of her other suitemates were home yet, so Maura decided to treat herself with a long, 2:30 a.m. shower. She liked showering before going to bed, but didn't often get the chance as her roommate typically went to bed before her, and the shower was quite loud. So she luxuriated in this freedom while she could, only to get out of the shower a little after 3 a.m. to see she had a missed call and voicemail from Jane.

Jane's tone was nonchalant and soft: _"Hey Maura, sorry to be calling you so late. I guess since you didn't pick up you're already asleep, but I figured I'd call and let you know I just got out of the E.R. It's no big deal, I just uh… turns out I broke my arm, but it's not a big deal. If you could like, give me some tips on what not to do with it or something, that'd be really awesome. Man, I'm tired—I'll call you tomorrow, okay? Which is our anniversary, hey! Go us! Actually, not tomorrow, today, since it's after midnight, I guess. Wow, time flies. I love you so, so much. Bye." _

Maura sat on her bed in shock, staring blankly at her phone in confusion. Her mind had blanked out after "E.R.," but rather than waste time listening to the message again, Maura threw on the first clothes she could find and raced out the door without even drying her hair.

In her haste, she knocked into Stacey and Jack, who had been in the middle of a nonverbal goodbye for the end of their date. "Maura!" Stacey called out as her roommate quickly apologized and kept running. "What's wrong, where are you—?"

"Jane had an accident, I have to go!" Maura yelled over her shoulder.

As she drove to the Rizzoli's house, Maura never stopped to wonder how many driving laws she was breaking to get there in as quickly as possible—all she knew was that it was taking too long. She parked her convertible by the curb and ran around to the back of the house, where she dug the back-door key out of the potter on the porch. Years of following her friends in Europe over to boys' dorms had taught her how to sneak quietly into any building, and she had recently mastered the art of opening this door noiselessly.

What nearly gave her away was the scream she nearly let escape her when she realized someone was sitting at the kitchen table. Maura clapped a hand over her mouth and then hissed in annoyance when she realized it was Tommy.

"I was wondering when you'd show up," he said matter-of-factly.

"Geez, Tommy, did you have to be so _creepy_ about it?"

He shrugged. "I guess not. Jane's in her room." He waited until Maura was nearly at the hallway before saying, "But…"

Maura walked back to him. "But what?"

"I wouldn't go up there. You'll wake up my parents, and they won't be too pleased to see you at this hour."

"For God's sake, Tommy, they won't care. And besides, I won't wake them up."

"Okay, maybe they'll stay asleep. But maybe they _would _be pissed to hear Jane's girlfriend spent the night."

"You know what, I really don't think they would."

Tommy continued talking as if Maura hadn't spoken. "I could be trusted to keep my mouth shut if you'd let me take a spin in your Mercedes…"

His tone was light and only a little desperate, not obnoxious, but Maura slapped him upside the head anyway. "I'm distracted and a bit upset, Tommy, not _stupid_. For the eighteenth time—" (yes, she'd been keeping count)—"you cannot drive my car! Now go back to sleep, you have school in the morning!"

Tommy sighed in defeat and returned to his room as Maura slid off her shoes. Holding them in hand, she quietly headed up the stairs to Jane's room, careful to avoid the one step that creaked particularly loudly. Not bothering to knock, Maura gently pushed Jane's door open to see Jane propped up in bed, her right arm in a long cast and propped up on a pillow. She turned her tired eyes towards Maura, who shut the door behind her and hurried to sit on the edge of the bed.

"What're you doing here?" Jane asked, her voice cracking from lack of use.

"What do you think? I got your message. I was in the shower when you left it, or I'd have been here sooner. Jane, what happened?"

"I…uh, broke my arm."

"How?"

In an attempt to avoid answering this question, Jane said, "Really? That's it? No request for my X-rays, or the credentials of the doctor who diagnosed me?"

"_Did _they do an x-ray?"

"Yes. Pretty clean break, apparently."

"Did you take any pain medication?"

"Yeah, I had some Advil," Jane grumbled, sitting up a bit more.

Maura gently took Jane's left hand between her own. "Tell me what happened."

Jane sighed and looked up at the ceiling. "You have to promise you won't get upset."

This definitely gave Maura pause. "Were you doing something stupid?"

With another sigh, Jane admitted, "Possibly."

"Okay, now you _have _to tell me. And I reserve the right to remain upset." With a soft whimper, Jane did her best imitation of a puppy dog pout, a trick she had come to learn worked nine out of ten times when she needed Maura to lighten up. Fortunately for her, the combination of the cute face and the late hour and the fact that she had a cast worked together somewhat efficiently to make Maura a little less tense. "I'll be civil, I swear. Now please stop torturing and explain how you wound up in the E.R. after two a.m."

Once she was satisfied that Maura had sufficiently calmed down, Jane said, "It was at work. At the gas station. Somebody …some guy tried to rob us."

"_What?_ Was he armed?"

"Had a knife, yeah."

"Jane! Oh my G—are you okay?"

"Uh, hello?" Jane laughed, lifting her broken arm.

"He stabbed you in the arm?"

"No, Maura. I think he figured that 'cause it was such a random hour and no guys were working the shift, he'd have an easy time getting the money from the register. But he was wicked nervous, you know? The only other people there were these girls, like maybe fourteen or fifteen, and they looked _terrified_. Scaring them was like the only thing that I think kept this guy from pissing himself."

"What d'you mean?"

"I mean _I _was scared, but I tried not to show it, and I think that put him on edge and made him worry he wasn't being tough enough or something, I dunno. But these girls were so _obviously_ petrified, and he liked making them scared. Sick piece of crap. Anyway, I guess I wasn't moving fast enough. And by that, I mean I wasn't doing anything."

"You weren't trying to give him the money?"

"Well no. I was a little distracted by his ego tripping. Finally he turned around and looked at me and was really mad to see I hadn't started emptying out the register, and I…" She took a moment to collect herself, to fight down the tears that were threatening to spring up at the fear of the memory. "I swear, Maura, I thought for a second he was gonna cut me. He lifted the knife and I panicked."

"God, Jane, what did you do?" Maura whispered fervently, moving in closer.

"Something stupid." She shrugged half-heartedly. "I tried to talk him down, y'know. Tell him he didn't really want to do this. We were standing on opposite sides of the counter, really close, and I thought I was doing okay 'cause he started lowering his arm again, like he was gonna just walk away. But then somebody honked outside, and we both freaked out. I punched his arm down to the counter, and then knife fell out of his hand, and he flipped. He grabbed my arm and tried to pull me around the counter, and it sort of rammed into the cash register, which didn't really want to move, so… I think that's how the arm actually broke."

Maura surveyed her carefully, waiting for more. "What else happened?"

"He had the bad luck of running into a cop, and one of the girls in the store called an ambulance when I realized my arm wasn't feeling quite right." With a smirk Jane added, "She asked me for my number."

"Well I imagine you would be particularly hard to resist after such a feat of daring."

They laughed quietly together, Jane rubbing her thumb along Maura's fingers. Once the smile on her face had faded somewhat, Jane asked, "So? It was stupid, right? I should've just let him take the cash. He wouldn't have had the guts to use that knife." But before even giving Maura a chance to respond truthfully, Jane felt the need to jump in and defend herself a bit. "I overreacted, I was in way over my head, but I couldn't help it. I don't know what the hell those girls were doing out at that hour, but this'll probably ever keep them from ever doing it again. I saw him scaring them and I just wanted to do whatever it took to get those terrified looks off their faces."

Maura brought over Jane's other hand and kissed it. "Yes, it was stupid," she said in a level voice. "But I understand why you did it. Being in the moment often causes our senses to inexplicably leave us behind. Take just now, for example. I've seen dozens of broken bones, helped set countless broken limbs, and I know the results are far from fatal and far from horrifically damaging. But I stepped in here, and I saw you propped up like this, and my mind instantly imagined the worst." She leaned over and kissed Jane's forehead in an effort to calm them both. "Logically I know that you're going to be fine, but I just—seeing you hurt, in a cast—it drove logic away."

"Oh, but you're always so emotional anyway," Jane chuckled, and Maura smiled at her. "We're a couple of goofs, Maura. Although mine could have potentially had more devastating results, now that I think about it."

"What did your mother say when you told her what happened?" Maura asked.

"That she couldn't believe I had taken my skateboard to work when it's so dark outside and I didn't even wear any protection."

It took Maura a second. "You…you lied to her."

"Of course I lied to her. You think I'd ever hear the end of it if I'd told her the truth? That I was working the graveyard shift and a guy held a knife up to me?"

Frowning, Maura said, "When you put it like that, I'm starting to think I should be a bit more upset with you."

Jane gripped Maura's hand a little more tightly. "Maura, you're the only person I've told the whole story to. Not even the boys or my Pop know, or the doctor. I told you because I cannot lie to you. And also because …I know Ma isn't ever gonna be okay with it, with my wanting to be a cop. She's always gonna be worried, she's always gonna want to try and talk me out of it. You've been great since day one, but you have to know that if I accomplish my dream, _this_…" She shook her wounded arm. "Is gonna be par for the course. Actually, it's a lot less than what's going to be par for the course, probably. I don't mean to be dramatic, but that's just the truth of it, you know?"

"Are you trying to scare me away?" Maura asked in a thick voice. "Because it's not going to work, Jane Rizzoli. You're going to have to do a hell of a lot better than that."

Jane smiled in relief and moved over slightly, giving Maura enough room to lie down next to her. "I was hoping you'd say that," she said into Maura's damp hair, leaving a kiss.

"I would never ask you to change the direction of where your life is going," Maura said, her hot breath directed onto Jane's neck. "I've always known and respected that it was what you wanted to do, and I know you'll be great at it. Of course I wish you could choose a profession that would be a little less dangerous, but somebody's got to do it, and I can't picture anyone better than you. It's always someone's child out there with the badge, Jane. Someone's sibling, someone's friend, someone's lover. If they can take it, I can. The people of Boston deserve a person like you doing her best to protect them. I mean, the thought of you risking your life to put three kids a little at ease—"

"Aw geez, Maura, I didn't risk my life…"

Maura made a noise that was somewhere between a groan and a laugh, throwing her arm around Jane's stomach and squeezing tight. "Oh, I really am not looking forward to the sleepless nights I'm bound to have with you going around forcing people to drop their weapons and pretend that it's not risking your life. Speaking of sleepless nights, you're quitting."

"What, at the gas station? Because of this? I'll be fine!"

"Yes, I'm sure you will," Maura snorted. "People are going to learn fast not to mess with Jane Rizzoli when she's on duty. I mean you need to drop one of the other ones, then. Working three jobs is not allowing you to get any sleep, and that is _significantly _unhealthy. Quit the cleaning crew. And start taking melatonin; I don't care, anything to get you more hours of sleep in a day. Half the time you look like you're about to audition to be an extra in a zombie movie, and I never get to see you."

Jane considered this for a while. In all honesty she really did know she needed more sleep, and three jobs had been taking a serious toll not only on that but on time spent with Maura. "All right," she finally conceded. "I'll quit the cleaning crew."

"Good," Maura murmured, giving Jane's cheek a long kiss and snuggling in closer. "Why were you even trying to balance three jobs, anyway?"

"To make more money."

"What do you need money for? You live and eat at home, you have a partial scholarship to cover your admission which your parents are covering the rest of, and you split gas money with Frankie."

"You."

"What?"

"I like having money for you, Maura." When Maura sat up to voice her concerns about this, Jane hastily added, "_Not _because I feel like I have to impress you or be as rich as you or anything else. I know you don't expect anything fancy. But I—I just _like _being able to do something nice for you once and a while when I can. Pop told me once he used to save part of his salary every week so he could take Ma out to a real fancy restaurant for dinner, or buy her something real nice. It's not necessary, but it's appreciated. It's a gesture. I know money doesn't mean anything to you, but that's because you're used to having it. I'm not, so I don't feel like I need it in the same way. You're right, I've pretty much got my bases covered. I like having money so I can lavish it on you. You are the only reason I want it, the only reason I make it. I have nothing and nobody else for that money to go towards. It's savings, and it's you, so I can treat you to something nice every once in a while. Do you—"

Maura cut her off with a kiss, leaning over her and gently bringing her leg over both of Jane's. Jane trailed her good hand down past Maura's waist, letting it settle on her ass and pulling her in as much as she could. This elicited a moan from Maura, who proceeded to use her tongue to tease Jane's lips apart and slip inside. Jane winced at the sudden intrusion but did not complain—it would be a lie to say she hadn't hoped for some comfort like this.

All too soon, Maura broke it off and pulled away just enough to look Jane in the eye. "You _do _know that money isn't important to me, right?" she asked in a breath. "You treat me to something nice every time you call, every time you laugh, every time you touch me."

Jane leaned up for a shorter, gentler kiss. "You're sweet, Maura, you know that?"

"Right back at you," Maura returned, stroking the cleft in Jane's chin. "Hey, I just remembered. Happy anniversary, Jane."

She snorted. "Nice way to spend an anniversary, huh?"

"It'll be memorable, I'll grant you that. How shall we celebrate?"

"Well I have something planned out for tonight."

"I know, babe, but we're awake right now. We should celebrate. I know! How about I help you prepare for your bio midterm tomorrow?"

"Yeah, _that'd _be fun," Jane said, rolling her eyes. "I swear you're a sadist, Maura. I don't know how you ever get any pleasure out of studying. Have you ever noticed you can't spell that word without also spelling 'dying'?"

Smirking, Maura traced her finger down Jane's neck, between her breasts, settling her hand on Jane's abdomen. "You also can't spell it without spelling 'stud.' Ever think of that?"

It was hard to think of anything when Maura started kissing her neck. "Uh, no," Jane said weakly. "I guess I didn't."

"Regardless, you're probably right," Maura sighed, before running her tongue up the column of Jane's throat, ending by catching her lips in a kiss. "Studying wouldn't be a great present for you, especially considering what you've gone through tonight." She shifted so that she was lying on top of Jane, fully straddling her waist, palms flat on the sheets beneath Jane's arms so that she was slightly elevated. "My anniversary gift for you is a two-parter. I was going to save one of the parts for after dinner, but I could give it to you know, if you'd like. Do you?" she asked innocently, batting her eyelashes. Jane could barely summon the energy to nod, but Maura got the message and purred, "Where do you want me to start?"

"Uh…where you were just a second ago—that was fine."

Another smirk was the last thing Jane saw before Maura's head dipped down again to suck at the pulse point on Jane's neck. Jane swore every muscle in her body clenched at the sensation, and she tightened her hold on Maura's shirt, scrunching some of it into a ball in her fist. Her breathing was choked and staggered as Maura patiently worked her neck, occasionally licking and biting it, beyond turned on by the noises these actions were causing Jane to make.

"I'm torn," she said in a devilish whisper. "I should be mad at you for putting yourself in danger, and in a way, I am. But I'm also a horny eighteen-year-old girl who finds your courage and your protective instincts unbelievably sexy."

"Tell me," Jane breathed, her hand moving up to Maura's hair.

Maura took her time kissing her way down to the base of Jane's neck, then over to her shoulder. Jane was wearing a black tanktop, leaving much of her skin deliciously bare; Maura bit down on Jane's shoulder and giggled when Jane flexed involuntarily. "Do that again," she encouraged, tracing a finger down Jane's bicep. Jane flexed and held it, knowing Maura loved how it looked and felt when she did so. An appreciative moan escaped Maura and she moved over to kiss the taut skin of Jane's arm. "So hot," she whispered before lavishing the same amount of attention on Jane's bicep as she had on her neck.

"God, Maura," Jane said with a gulp, hoping Maura had remembered to lock the door.

"I can't wait for Halloween," Maura whispered, shifting down and lifting the bottom of Jane's tank top. "The thought of you in a cop costume makes me so hot." She grinned when Jane made some sort of piteous whine and pushed her head down, forcibly bringing Maura's mouth into contact with her newly bared stomach. "I know you're going to take your job really seriously once you get it, and I plan to take it just as seriously."

"Get up here," Jane whispered urgently, trying her best with only one arm to pull Maura upwards and into a sloppy kiss.

Maura moved carefully, not wanting to disturb Jane's broken arm, but still wanting to give this kiss her all. Though they had been in positions similar to this before and even with less clothing than this before, it was only the second time Maura's hand got the better of her and slipped between them to try and cup Jane's heat through her shorts. Jane gasped and felt her hips buck upwards of their own accord, Maura's hand rubbing roughly against the spot, anxious to do this for as long as Jane would let her.

Which, it turned out, wasn't very long. Another involuntary move had made Jane try to swing her right arm over, entirely forgetting that it was in a cast and quite a bit of pain. She swore and sat up, and Maura, startled, sat up as well.

"Are you all right?" she asked anxiously. "Did I hurt you?"

Jane swore again and rubbed her cast, which she knew was stupid as it did absolutely nothing to soothe her actual arm. "Maura, I really wanted this to be special," she said. "Today, I mean. Tonight. Our anniversary. I thought …I really thought I could do it. I wanted to do it. But then _this _happened—" She waved her wounded arm again, which hurt just as much as she should have expected, and it was hard to swallow down another shot of pain.

"Jane, it's all right, it's all right," Maura said quickly, stroking some hair out of Jane's face. "We can still do this. I can keep going if you want me to."

"I… I want you to, Maura, but I don't want you to."

"I don't understand."

Jane sighed shortly. "You're so amazing. It's like you said before—you touch me, and all logic goes out the window. But I don't want you to _really _touch me for the first time until I can do it back. With my good hand. And not be afraid that I'll make this arm worse just by the way my body reacts."

"That's fair," Maura decided, though she was throbbing in complaint. "And it's really sweet," she added, offering another quick kiss. Ultimately she decided she agreed—as badly as she wanted to touch Jane, it wouldn't be the same for either of them if Jane couldn't reciprocate right away.

They lay there for several minutes, waiting for the other to fall asleep, but it never happened. Jane had already decided she was going to take a mental health day away from work and school tomorrow, and Maura didn't have a class until three in the afternoon, so she was in no hurry to sleep. Besides, they were both too keyed up to just drift off.

"Hey," Jane finally murmured, rubbing Maura's arm. "You pick a silent movie for us yet?"

"Do you have your laptop in here?"

Jane nodded over at her desk, and Maura reached over to get it. "Have you ever heard of Buster Keaton?"

"Only because of you. Wasn't the other guy?"

"What other guy?"

"The other funny guy. There was him and Charlie Chaplin, right?"

"Well, there were actually quite a number of popular silent comedians, many of whom still have rather significantly sized legions of fans," Maura said seriously, going to Youtube and looking up the movie she wanted. "But yes, Chaplin and Keaton are the best remembered today. This one's short, it's less than an hour, and you ought to like it. He plays someone who has an ambition to become a detective."

"Yay," Jane yawned as Maura pulled up the video and made it full screen. "Hm. _Sherlock Jr_, huh?"

"Yes," Maura said, positioning the laptop so they could both see it and then pressing herself up against Jane again. "Sound good?"

Jane squeezed Maura's arm and leaned in for another kiss. "Sounds perfect."

* * *

><p><strong>AN**: I do have to say, reviews really do help expedite the updating process. If you like this and want more, please let me know. Be warned- I recently watched a buttload of _Boy Meets World_, and I had totally forgotten that Cory and Topanga actually get married in college and how romantic I thought that was when I was a kid. So what I'm saying is a similar thing might totally happen here. (This is all ridiculous, I know. It's fanfiction. It's for fun. These scenarios are not all realistic. Embrace the cheese with me.)


	9. Anneversaire

**A/N**: So this has been mostly finished for a while, but it took me forever to come up with a way to end it. I have come to a realization about this story: because it was originally intended as just a one-shot, I have no idea what to keep writing to update it. I never intended to write more than one or two chapters at most, so I don't really feel inspired much to come up with more ideas for it. It's not really related to the show. Thanks to those who've still been reading it, but to be honest, I think the updates will be slow at best. Considering that this isn't exactly a plot-driven story, I hope that's okay.

* * *

><p>Maura spent the night sleeping in Jane's bed, which felt like the perfect beginning to mark their anniversary. Jane woke up first, smiling when she realized Maura was still with her, and that the weight over her stomach was Maura's arm draped across her. But she hardly got the chance to appreciate the simple beauty of this moment before Angela cracked the door open and poked her head inside. As Angela registered her surprise at seeing Maura there, Jane tried to gesture for her to leave, feeling briefly as if she were in the silent movie she and Maura had watched earlier.<p>

"Oh, you know she won't wake up!" Angela whispered, stepping inside and closing the door quietly behind her. As she pulled a chair over to Jane's side of the bed, Jane had to acknowledge this was a fair point: when she was tired, Maura was known to be able to sleep straight through just about anything, up to and including the famously loud Rizzoli Thanksgiving football games. "Did she spend the night here?"

"Yeah, things got wicked carnal," Jane said, rolling her eyes.

"It was just a question!"

"Yes, Ma, she spent the night here. I called to tell her about my accident and she came over without my asking."

Angela inhaled sharply and leaned back in the chair, observing. She had to stifle a laugh when Jane pulled an exaggerated pout, lifting her wounded arm.

"All right, Jane Clementine. This is sort of sweet, you know."

They were both startled when Maura grumbled, "Yes… yes it is."

Jane held up a finger to tell Angela not to say anything. "What is, babe?"

Little known fact about Maura Isles: she sometimes talked in her sleep. This was information that until this year had been privy only to the Rizzoli's (who she occasionally drifted off in front of), but now also included her roommates. It began one night when she asked Rachel for her sentiments towards outer space, and a baffled Rachel wondered how the conversation kept delving into tangents about Tom and Jerry before realizing Maura was sleep-talking. Naturally, whenever the situation arose again, she would grab whichever other roommate was home and ask her to join in the conversation before Maura woke up.

Now, Maura buried her face a little deeper into Jane's neck. "Hm…what?"

"Sweet. You agreed something was sweet," Jane gently pressed her.

"Bunnies."

"Yes, bunnies are very sweet."

Maura grinned and laughed softly. "Playboy bunnies." Jane and Angela both cried out wordlessly, the latter abruptly standing up and heading towards the door. The disruptive noises had jarred Maura a little out of her sleep, but she was still quite drowsy. "Hm? What's…"

"You girls go ahead and wake up," Angela said loudly, stepping out of the room. "I'll make some breakfast!"

The door slammed shut, and Maura groaned into Jane's neck at the loud sound. "What'd she say?" she mumbled.

"Breakfast, Maur. Feel like pancakes?"

"Bunny pancakes?"

"I'm sure that can be arranged."

To make a semi-long story short, it was.

Maura returned to campus in time for her protein biochemistry class, and when she ultimately got back to her suite late in the afternoon it was to see her roommates crowded around Amber's computer. All three of them looked up when Maura walked in, their gazes following her as she made her way to her room. At the door she realized she was being stared at, and when she turned to look at them, Rachel elbowed Stacey in the stomach.

"Hey, so is everything all right?" Stacey asked. "You ran out of here wicked late last night, saying something about Jane."

With a heavy sigh, Maura walked over and sunk into the chair by the couch they were all sitting on. "Oh, it was very dramatic. Jane's been working the graveyard shift at a gas station, and last night…" Her voice caught with emotions, and although she didn't shed any tears, she felt like it. In spite of Jane's bravado and the fact that they'd ultimately been able to fall asleep peacefully, actually saying the words out loud about what'd happened suddenly felt very difficult.

Rachel leaned over and touched Maura's arm. "Is she all right?"

"Yes," Maura half-laughed. "A guy with a knife came in and tried to rob the place. She wanted to stop him and wound up breaking her arm in the process. But…" She sighed to relax herself, and was able to smile a bit. "She'll be fine. I think I was probably more scared than she was." They all looked at each other in silence for a few moments, and it occurred to Maura that despite the concern they had expressed, none of them looked as shocked as she might have expected. When each of her roommates glanced at Amber's laptop in succession, Maura finally caught on. "What are you all looking at?"

In near unison, Rachel said "nothing," Stacey said, "concert tickets," and Amber blurted, "your girlfriend is a youtube star."

"_What?"_ Maura gasped over the sound of Amber laughing while Rachel and Stacey both smacked her with a pillow. She crammed herself into the remaining spot on the couch and saw that the girls were on Youtube watching a video called "gas station girl takes on wanna-be thug."

"It's from the security camera," Stacey said. "There's no sound, and it ends with him running away. Do you know what happened after?"

"He—he got arrested."

Amber laughed victoriously. "SWEET! I'm totally putting that in my comment."

"Er…you don't want to watch it, do you?" Stacey asked, noting the somewhat horrified look on Maura's face.

"I-I—no, I don't. Not yet, at least. I've seen the aftermath. That's enough for me."

"Man, lemme tell you something, though," Amber chuckled. "Between this and that video Barry posted of you guys at the shooting range, I don't think you'll ever have to worry about her capability to rescue you when you're in a tight spot."

"Excuse me, who says I need to be rescued?" Maura asked, promptly standing up and tripping over one of Stacey's shoes. She cleared her throat as her roommates all stifled their laughter, and said, "If you three will pardon me, I need to get ready for my date. Jane and I are celebrating our third anniversary tonight."

This sent the girls into an excited tizzy, and to Maura's surprise, they all followed her back to the room she shared with Rachel to offer unsolicited (but ultimately appreciated) feedback on her hair and wardrobe choices. Stacey leant her clutch that better matched Maura's olive green dress and Amber threw in a bracelet she had noticed Maura admiring lately ("That's just a loan, though, babe.") while Rachel wound up contributing some lip gloss. It wasn't a particularly difficult job getting Maura Isles to look glamorous; it was more about just adding on. Rachel remarked that she almost felt transported back to her childhood, dressing up a Barbie doll.

"Hey, at least there's brains in this Barbie," Amber snorted.

"Did they ever do a neurosurgeon Barbie?" Stacey wondered out loud, running some product through Maura's hair. "Maura, I feel kind of bad that they didn't have like a cadaver-ish Barbie for little girls like you, who were interested in science."

"Right, because _that _wouldn't have traumatized anybody," Amber said, taking to Maura's jacket with a lint roller.

"Dude, if doll companies were worried about traumatizing children, they never would have made the ones that peed into those little toilets."

"Ew, what?" Maura laughed. "You're making that up."

"No she's not," Amber and Rachel said in unison.

"It's times like this that make me feel a little better about having grown up in Europe…"

A few minutes later, Maura looked the part of a girl who was ready to go, and her timing was impeccable because that's when the doorbell rang. In a pair of three-inch slingback heels, Maura went to answer it as her roommates hung back, trying (and failing) to be at least a little respectful. Maura opened the door to see Jane leaning against the frame wearing a dark blue button-up shirt over a white tank, both of which were tucked into a fitted pair of gray slacks. The sleeve covering her cast was noticeably bulky, but was at least for the moment covered by a small but colorful bouquet Jane was clutching tightly.

"Hey beautiful," she said when all Maura could offer was an open-mouthed smile. She moved in for a kiss and handed Maura the flowers. "Happy anniversary. Um, again."

Maura laughed and opened the door a little wider, asking Jane to come inside while she found a place for the flowers. "You look absolutely stunning, Jane."

"Aw, no I don't. You look like a movie star—just like always."

"I swear to God," Stacey cut in, coming over to get a vase that Maura was struggling to reach. "If this turns into another one of your guys' 'no, _you're_ prettier' arguments—"

"We don't do have those!" Maura insisted lightly.

"You do every single time Jane picks you up for a date," Amber threw in. "We'll settle this. You both look hot. Happy anniversary."

"Yeah, the start of a third year? That's pretty awesome," Stacey said. "Congrats, guys!"

"Thanks," Jane said with a wide smile as Maura headed back to the front door. "You all have a nice night."

"Don't have her out too late!" Amber called out, wagging her finger.

"Back by eleven, and no funny business," Stacey added, barely able to keep a straight face.

"Sure thing, moms," Jane laughed, following Maura out the door and closing it softly behind her. "Man, Maura, your roommates sure are cool. I wish I could have some who more like that—and less, you know, like Tommy and Frankie."

"Oh, I don't know," Maura said. "I love my roommates, but there are times I find myself missing the solitude of family life."

"Uh, _your _family life," Jane chuckled. "It's about as easy to get some time to yourself in _my_ family as it is for you to fail a class."

"Impossible!" Maura scoffed.

"Exactly." They had reached Jane's car, and rather than prolong their conversation in the direction it was currently going, Jane gently pushed Maura against the passenger door and kissed her. "I know I've got a lot to be grateful for, Maura—a family that accepts me for who I am, money for school, awesome friends …but sometimes it can all be just a little too much. Ma or Tommy'll drive me up the wall, I'll fail a test …I know you and I haven't had a perfectly smooth road these last few years, but sometimes I feel like you are the one _constantly _good thing in my life."

Maura was so moved by this sentiment that she couldn't even speak. For a few moments they engaged silently in what Frost jokingly called "eye sex," which according to him they'd had frequently at school. Then Maura pulled Jane into a kiss, caressing her face as Jane's hand went limply to Maura's waist.

She always loved knowing she was Jane's first real relationship. To her knowledge, Jane had kissed two other people before meeting Maura, while Maura had been a bit more open before moving to the states. Her mother had never discouraged her from dating a lot of boys even at a young age, and Maura had been in two relationships before Boston. They had both been with nice guys, but they were at the stage where the thought of making out with a girl and bragging about it later was still their top priority. Neither ever tried pressing his advantage, and neither was ever mean to her, but in retrospect, Maura felt they could have been reasonably satisfied with any other girl.

Jane truly made her feel like she was one of a kind. And even though she truly meant it when she would tell Maura how beautiful she was, or how much she enjoyed kissing her, she never hesitated to talk about other things—to make it abundantly crystal clear that Maura was so much more to her than a pretty face. As someone who grew up constantly wondering why her parents had even bothered to adopt her, Maura couldn't overstate how deeply she loved Jane's willingness to share affection.

They hadn't been kissing for very long before some guys on the other end of the parking lot started making some cat calls. Jane broke off the kiss and glared at them over the car, which only inspired one of them to start clapping and another one to yell a suggestion of how the girls could proceed. Jane opened the passenger door and Maura silently stepped inside, and as she walked around the car to get in, Jane gave the boys the finger.

"Immature asswipes," she muttered, buckling up.

"It's better than the alternative, isn't it?" Maura asked.

"Which is what, getting told we're going to hell? Yeah, loads better," Jane grumbled. "Geez, Maura. I just want everyone to be cool with this. No whistling, no cat-calling, no grossed-out looks. Just If people have to think anything at all when they see us, I wish it'd just be 'oh look, how sweet,' before they just move freaking on."

"We'll get there, Jane, don't worry," Maura said quietly.

"You really think so? In _our _life time? And by life time, I mean before we turn eighty. I'd really love to have people be cool with it before then." Jane sighed heavily, finally turning out of the parking lot. "Sorry—I don't want to start off our date in a bad mood. Tonight's supposed to be about celebrating, so let's do that."

Maura smiled, grateful that Jane was at least trying to act like she wasn't bothered anymore. "By the way, you're welcome for letting you drive."

Jane had to laugh at that. Maura always got antsy whenever Jane only drove with one hand on the wheel, and the cast she was currently sporting sort of made it impossible to drive any other way. "Thanks. And I'll thank _you _to try your best not to hyperventilate in anxiety on the way there."

"Where are we going anyway?"

"Chez Pierre."

Since hyperventilating was out, Maura squealed and turned in her seat to look at Jane, who was chuckling at the reaction she had been anticipating. "Jane, you're not really taking me there, are you?"

"Of course I am. You love that place."

"_I _do, but you don't."

"I don't hate it, though. They have good… bread. And other things. There's that one thing I like with the sauce, you know? That I can never pronounce the name of? And besides, tonight's big. We have to celebrate in style. I couldn't just take you to _le Golden Arches_."

Maura rolled her eyes. "I still can't believe I fell for that one." (McDonald's was the first place they had gone to for an outing as friends, an anniversary they always celebrated as well because it was the one time Jane could ever get Maura to set foot inside of a fast food joint. She would of course never eat anything, and would only shake her head in disappointment as Jane loaded up on fries and a McFlurry.)

Chez Pierre was as crowded as it always was, and Jane was glad she had remembered to make a reservation. Jane was initially very conscious of the fact that several eyes followed them as they were led to their table, but one quick glance at Maura instantly relaxed her. That smile could calm Jane's anxieties faster than anything.

"You wanna know something funny, Maura?" Jane asked once their orders had been placed.

Maura delicately laced her fingers together, resting her chin on them and leaning forward slightly. "What?"

"You are the most gorgeous creature on the planet."

"And that's funny?" Maura laughed.

"What's funny is that I always seem to forget how true it is. There are beautiful women everywhere, Maura, but you really stand out because even though you know how gorgeous you are, you _act _like you don't. You have so much more to offer."

"As do you," Maura said, tipping her glass at Jane. "I feel like you're the only person who could toss of compliments like that sincerely. I know you're not just trying to get in my pants." She took a sip, blushing as Jane averted her gaze. Setting down the glass, Maura reached for Jane's hand across the table and gave it a squeeze. "I love that I always know where I stand with you."

French food really wasn't that terrible after all.

After they had finished more courses than Jane realized existed, Maura begged off for a break before they ordered dessert. Their waiter left a small menu with them, which remained ignored for a few minutes as Maura pulled a small box out of her borrowed clutch and Jane got one from her pocket. Maura insisted Jane open hers first, all but pushing her box into Jane's hand.

"Whoa," Jane muttered, opening the box to see a silver watch inside. She delicately pulled it out, grinning at the understated beauty of its dark face and elegant hands. The only numbers on it were the twelve and the six, which Jane had once joked were the markers of a truly fancy watch. "Maura, it's like you knew!"

"Knew what?"

"My watch got smashed yesterday," Jane said, lifting her broken limb. "I mean it was old and crummy, but I'd had it forever, so I was kinda sorry to lose it… but this is beautiful."

"Really?"

"Yeah. Wow. I love it." She leaned over the table, bringing her good hand up to Maura's cheek and stroking it gently before giving her a kiss. "Help me put it on?"

"Maybe this will teach you to put your watch on the correct wrist," Maura teased her, clasping the watch for Jane.

Jane shrugged, admiring the glistening new watch on her wrist. "Eh, you know me. I don't like doing things the normal way." She was sure the watch had been beyond reasonably expensive, but had learned long ago to stop harassing Maura about pricey gifts. They were interspersed enough with cheaper ones, or something as priceless as a painting she had done, that Jane knew it would be insulting to believe Maura equated money with a good present. "Okay, now open yours," she said, handing her own small box across the table.

For one heart-stopping moment, it had occurred to Maura that the box was ring-sized. But when she opened it, she saw that it contained a pair of small green earrings.

"They aren't the nicest stones, I know," Jane said, although Maura appeared more than happy with them. "But I saw them in _Roma _and I had to get them for you. They kind of look like little turtles, so I thought of Bass, and I thought of you."

Maura laughed at the comparison. "Yes, I can see that!" She hastened to put them on. "How do I look?"

Jane just smiled and shook her head. There were no words.

Just then, their waiter dropped by with two lemon soufflés. When the girls looked up at him gentle puzzlement, he nodded to the right and said, "From the gentleman behind me."

He then walked away, leaving Jane and Maura with a view of a waving, gray-haired man with his redheaded wife. Jane grinned, recognizing him as the Sergeant she and Frost had been getting chummy with at BPD. She quickly stood up, and he strode over to their table.

"Hello sir!" she said, eagerly shaking his hand. "Maura, this is Sergeant Korsak!"

"I've heard a lot about you," Korsak and Maura said in unison. Korsak laughed and shook Maura's hand. "Jane's one tough kid, and Frost likes ribbing her. Says she had a girlfriend who's a real class act—I suppose that's why the two of you are in a place like this, huh?"

"Aw, what d'you know?" Jane laughed. "Maybe I like French food."

"And maybe I'm the Queen of Sheba."

"Very original, Sergeant."

"Shut up, Rizzoli, or I'll take those soufflés back to my table. You two celebrating something?"

"Three years," Maura said bashfully.

"Well! That's quite an accomplishment at your age. Or any age," he mumbled as sort of an afterthought. "Congratulations to both of you. And by the way, Jane—don't tell anyone I said this, but we may have an opening for a new dispatcher soon."

Jane's face split into an even wider grin. "No way! For real?"

"For realsies," Korsak said with a straight face, trying out a phrase Frost had taught him. "I'll keep you posted. You two have a good night."

"Thanks sir, same to you."

"It was nice meeting you," Maura offered.

"Likewise, Maura. You kids be good."

Jane chuckled at Korsak walked back to his own table. "Man, what I wouldn't give to be doing dispatch."

"I got the impression that that would be a somewhat monotonous job, at least compared to what you'd like to be doing."

"Well yeah, but it beats the hell out of working at a gas station, doesn't it?"

"Fair point."

Much like how Jane had learned to just quietly accept expensive gifts from Maura, Maura had come to terms with the fact that Jane was very stubborn about allowing her to pay for nice meals. They typically split the bill when it came to food, but generally on special occasions, Jane liked being able to pay. Maura wasn't sure if it was because Jane felt pressured to be the man in their relationship, but whatever the reason, she had learned to respect the desire and no longer fought Jane on it. After Jane had paid the bill, they waved goodbye to Korsak and headed back outside.

"So what now?" Maura asked excitedly.

"What now? Wasn't all that enough for you? I'm bushed," Jane yawned.

"Oh," Maura said, her face falling slightly.

"Maura. C'mon. That was a joke!"

Maura sighed as Jane opened the car door for her. "Ah, of course. I just thought that after our not-terribly-restful night, it was entirely possible you _would _be very tired."

Jane slid into the driver's seat. "Maybe a bit, but that doesn't mean I'm too tired to take you to the Play Place at the Golden Arches!"

"That had better be another joke."

"Ah, you're catching on."

"So where are we _really _going?"

"Someplace I've never kissed you."

The nice thing about Jane was that she never really took the expected route. Maura had been expecting some place spectacular or exotic, and was a little surprised when Jane pulled into the parking lot of the local swimming pool she'd once worked at. Jane grinned over at her, getting out of the car, and Maura hesitantly followed.

"Jane, what're we doing here?" she whispered. "We're going to get in trouble!"

"No we're not," Jane said confidently. The pool had been closed for two hours, and the outside one was covered anyway, but that wasn't why they were here. "We always used to come after hours to hang out," Jane said, pulling out the key Frost (still a current employee) had leant her. "Nobody ever comes around." She got the gate open and stepped inside, reaching back for Maura.

"So… are we here for a late night swim?" Maura asked. "Because I don't think I'm dressed for it."

"You don't need to be," Jane assured her. The lamps in the parking lot bathed the area in light, and Jane guided Maura over to one of the poolside chairs. As it was probably not clean enough for Maura's liking, Jane shrugged off her blazer and laid it on top of the chair, indicating for Maura to sit. "Maura Isles, you have to promise not to laugh at me for what I'm about to say."

It was hard not to laugh right then and there. "I promise to do my best not to."

That was probably the best Jane could hope for. She got down on one knee to be closer to Maura's height, taking one of her hands. "Maura, this is the first place I ever saw you. Summer before junior year." She could tell by Maura's smile that she was thinking of that season as well. "You were lying on this chair in a gorgeous blue swimsuit, and I swear I had—I could not believe you were real."

"You weren't a slouch yourself, you know," Maura chuckled. "All tan legs and just… so beautiful. I seriously considered pretending to drown so you would have to come down and talk to me."

"Right, because talking to you would be a priority if you were drowning," Jane teased her. "But yeah, I kinda hoped the same thing so I'd have an excuse to come down to you. I invented these little scenarios in my head, like wishing you had a little sibling who was running around so I could come down and tell you to tell him to stop running. Or just asking where you'd gotten your swimsuit, or anything. Want to know what I thought the first time I saw you?"

"What?" Maura asked a little breathlessly.

Instead of answering, Jane stood up and walked briskly around to the other side of the pool. Maura sat up a little bit in concern when she saw Jane scaling one the lifeguard chairs single-handedly, but she eventually made it safely to the top. Perched there, Jane put one hand over her eyes and pretended to scan the area, then stopped when her gaze landed on Maura. She opened her mouth wide and exaggeratedly waved her limbs before climbing hurriedly back down the chair. Maura couldn't help laughing as Jane ran back over, but the laughter was quickly cut off when Jane straddled her on the lounging chair, kissing her roughly.

Maura moaned into the kiss, resting her hands on Jane's ass and pulling her in close. Jane's bad arm was hanging uselessly over the side of the chair, and she unconsciously put more effort into using her good one, curling it around Maura's back and grabbing a fistful of hair tightly.

Wary of doing too much damage to Maura's fancy attire, Jane pulled back about a minute later. Left flushed and breathless, Maura asked, "_That's _what you wanted to do to me?"

"More or less," Jane replied with a smile, easing up a bit. "We've got a sort of a saying in our family called a 'doorbell crush.'"

"What's that?"

"It's someone—usually a celebrity; actually, _always_ a celebrity—ringing your doorbell and asking you to run away with them. And you are so infatuated with this person that you would drop everything and do it, without a second thought. Pop's is Sophia Loren, and Ma's got dibs on Dean Martin. I always thought it was kind of a dumb idea though, so I never really got into it… but then I saw you, and I suddenly understood it. If you rang my doorbell, I knew I'd run away with you. It wasn't just 'cause you were so beautiful, though—you were reading a book and not a magazine, so I knew you were smart. You were in a classy suit, so I knew you were classy. You didn't get mad when kids accidentally splashed you, so I knew you were nice. And I thought, yeah. It'd be nice to run away with someone like that."

No longer caring about wrinkles, Maura pulled Jane in for another kiss. "Thank you for running away with me," she murmured, running her hand down Jane's neck.

"Thanks for keeping me," Jane whispered.

Soon Jane had to pull over another chair to give her arm a break. They lay side by side, staring up at the moon.

"Remember how nobody thought we'd make it?" Maura asked a short while later, her tone indicating this was the most hilarious idea in the world.

Jane took it a little more seriously. "Yeah," she said, rubbing her thumb along Maura's fingers. The gravity in her tone got Maura to look over at her, and Jane said, "Y'know, it's the whole school thing, I think."

"We go to college in the same county."

"I know, but you're like, smart. You're gonna be a _doctor_, you'll be in school forever. You're gonna be somebody, and I'm just gonna be…"

"What, someone who solves crimes?" Maura asked dryly. "Yes, what a lazy career choice."

"You know what I mean though, don't you?" Jane asked. "People see you, and they imagine you'd be with someone who's—well, more like you. Rich, sophisticated, really …intelligent."

"Is this an attempt to stoke your ego? Because you know you aren't stupid, Jane."

"No, I know. It's just…you're really going places with your life."

Maura squeezed Jane's hand, waiting for Jane to return her gaze. "Yes," she whispered. "And those places? You're going to be right there with me."


	10. A Friend in Need

When Jane finally got her cast off, Maura offered to go anywhere she wanted to celebrate. To her slight disappointment, this had meant going to IHOP, which was not far behind McDonald's in Maura's book. But Jane insisted that it was a rite of passage for people in their age bracket to go to IHOP around eleven at night and stay through to the early hours of the morning eating junk food, and why not do it now?

Frost and Amber accompanied them, and by not eating very much, Maura was actually able to enjoy herself. She loved having friends who could genuinely show interest and her and in whom she could also be engaged to the point of talking for several hours.

It was just past two-thirty in the morning when Amber and Maura made it back to their suite. They tip-toed past Stacey and her boyfriend, who had fallen asleep on the couch, and entered their respective bedrooms. The light in Maura's room was already out, and she tried moving as silently as possible to avoid waking up Rachel. Navigating the small space in the dark was now a task Maura was accustomed to, and she changed into sleepwear fairly quickly before ducking back out to brush her teeth and remove her makeup.

Returning for the second time, Maura slipped into bed and was surprised when she heard Rachel whisper her name. "Rach? Oh no, did I wake you?"

"Yeah," Rachel grumbled. "I mean no, sorry—I've just been awake."

"Oh…um…is everything okay?"

"Yep. Fine."

"All right." This was definitely a time when Maura found herself wishing she was better at reading tones. She and Rachel were lying in their beds, presumably both staring up at the same ceiling, neither of them asleep. Rachel professed to be fine, but something sounded off—was she just tired, or was something upsetting her? Was it Maura's job as a roommate to push her more, to make sure she was being told the truth? Was it her job to inquire, or would Rachel open up on her own if it was something she really wanted to talk about?

Fortunately for Maura's inner torment, the latter turned out to be the case. "Do you and Jane ever go to clubs?" Rachel blurted out.

"What?"

"You and Jane. Do you go to clubs?"

"Well, neither of us really drink," Maura said, cuing a snort from Rachel. Jane wanted to honor the badge before she even started wearing it, and had sworn not to drink until she was of the legal age to do so. Maura wouldn't so much as drive two miles faster than the posted speed limit, much less touch a substance it was illegal for her to swallow at her age. Exceptions for either of them did not broach more than a bit of champagne at New Year's or weddings, a concept that seemed bafflingly hilarious to Maura's roommates.

"Right," Rachel eventually said. "But… like, you could get a soda or something if you went to a club, right? Like if they let in underage people, and you just wanted to dance?"

"I suppose," Maura answered thoughtfully. "Although last I checked, Jane doesn't quite care for dancing in public. She just prefers to watch me—I love to dance!"

Maura had innocently meant that Jane enjoyed attending her ballet recitals, but Rachel immediately envisioned something else: Jane sitting on a chair in an empty room, where her only company was Maura, who was dressed in nothing but a matching set of black lace bra and panties. She would be grinding that amazing ass of hers into Jane's gorgeous face… and who could complain about that kind of dancing?

"…Rach? Was that you?"

"Huh? What? Was what me?"

"That sort of '_hnnggg' _sound."

"Damn it, Maura, yes! I want it!"

"Want what?"

"What you and Jane have!"

Maura sat up at Rachel's suddenly agitated tone, but it was too dark in the bedroom to really see the girl's face. Ever since Amber and Frost had started going out, Rachel had been the only girl in the suite not to be dating someone. She had seemed to have no problem with that, although now Maura was beginning to think that was just her own ignorance getting in the way of reading people again.

"Oh, Rach, I'm sorry. Maybe if Ian—"

"_Ian? _What the hell does this have to do with Ian?"

"I…I thought you liked him."

"I—well, I mean I guess I still do, sort of, but… that's not what I meant, Maura." Rachel sighed heavily, pulling her pillow around to the front of her face and smothering a moan with it. She loved Maura, but the girl could be frustratingly slow on the uptake sometimes. "I want to try dating a girl," she mumbled, her words slurring together as she pushed the pillow away.

"Um…what?"

Rachel sat up, staring at the door of their room. This time when she spoke, she made sure her words were very distinct not only to Maura but to herself. "I want to try dating a girl."

It was a long few moments before Maura could think of a reply, and when she did, it wasn't particularly profound. "Why?"

"I dunno, why did you?" Rachel asked, bristling slightly. "I'm still like, attracted to guys, but… I dunno, I was at a party the other night trying to get Ian's attention, but he was with some other girl and not really giving me the time of day, like at all. And then there was this girl—I can't even remember her name, but she was way pretty and wound up talking to me for like three hours."

"And…did anything happen?"

"We didn't like kiss or anything," Rachel said quickly. "But I was—I sort of wanted to. And I think she did, too. And like this other girl came over to try and talk to me, and the first girl was like weirdly possessive of me." She shrugged, now staring down at her hands. "And, I dunno. I felt nice." Another heavy sigh. "I've spent weeks trying to get Ian to notice me, and then suddenly I had these two really awesome girls fighting for my attention."

"So, hold on. Do you want to try and make Ian jealous, or…?"

"No, Maura. I wanted to—God, I dunno, is this weird? I wanted to try going out with a girl to see if it's maybe something I'd like. Another avenue to explore, you know? But I have no idea where to just go and find lesbians or bisexuals or whatever, so I thought maybe you and Jane had like a club or a bar or something that we could go to."

"We?"

"Omigod, Maura, I couldn't go alone!"

"Okay, okay, calm down! It's all right, um… I don't really know the scene around here, but I can call Jane tomorrow and see if she knows about any."

Rachel slowly lay back down again. Getting it out had been scary at first, but now she felt relieved and even a little excited. "Cool, Maura. Uh… d'you think maybe you could avoid telling Stacey and Amber about this?"

"About what?"

"Thanks," Rachel chuckled, turning over.

"…no, seriously. What?"

* * *

><p>"Yeah, I totally know a place."<p>

"You do?"

"Sure, Maura. Remember Claire?"

_How could I forget her? _"Of course." Claire had been the one soul brazen enough to try hitting on Jane when she and Maura had gone through a rough patch their senior year. Although nothing had happened between them, it was Claire's flirting that had pushed Jane to know she wanted to make up with Maura.

Not noticing the bite to Maura's tone, Jane said, "Well, Claire's got like a cousin or someone who runs a bar downtown, for lady-lovin' ladies only. Eighteen and over are okay—they only check I.D.'s if you want to buy a drink."

"So is it a club?"

"I dunno if I'd call it that; it's just a place to mix and mingle. There's dancing, though, with a deejay and everything. Should we take Rach this weekend?"

"Only if you'd be comfortable with it."

"Are you kidding? I think it's great!" Jane laughed.

"But I thought you didn't like going to bars…"

"Eh, I don't love it. But Gianna dragged me to enough in Italy for me to start getting comfortable with the whole dancing-in-public thing."

"Really?"

"Well, I'd do it for you, anyway."

"Ha! There's a word, Jane… a word for what you are when it comes to our relationship."

Jane sighed. "Whipped?"

"Yes! That was it!"

"You'd better stop teasing me, Maura, or I'm not taking you and your roommate to the Merch."

Once Maura had sufficiently apologized, Jane gave her the address of the place and agreed on a time to meet her and Rachel there on Friday night. Upon receiving the invitation, Rachel tried to act cool, but she was a bit of a mess once the weekend actually rolled around. Stacey was staying at her boyfriend's family's cabin with him until Sunday, and Amber was going straight from class to work, leaving Rachel and Maura alone in the apartment. So, Rachel was able to be as loud as she wanted in her time of distress.

"I have nothing to wear!" she announced when Maura was mid-sentence asking after the weather.

"What? I thought you and Stacey just went shopping last week."

"We did, but—what do I wear to a lesbian club? What do _you _wear? Maura! _What should I wear?!_"

"Rachel, relax, there's not a dress code!" Maura laughed.

All but wringing her hands, Rachel asked, "But what do girls look for?"

"They'll be looking for someone who's comfortable and self-assured," Maura said. "So you need to wear something you'll be, well, comfortable in! Don't worry about what other people will be thinking or saying; just wear what you'd feel good in. That's what I do."

"Well it's easy for _you _to say that, Maura! You'd look good in a trash bag!"

"Really? Thank you!"

"Dude."

"Sorry. Rachel, really, don't stress. I'll be dressing up, but I always do. Jane will be in slacks and a shirt, I'm sure, so there's really no key outfit."

"Okay, what about my hair? Should I put it up, leave it down?"

"Rachel—"

"_You're keeping all your lesbian knowledge secret from me!"_

"No, I'm not, I swear I'm just really socially awkward!" Maura whined. "You've lived with me long enough to know that! You're way more nervous than you need to be, trust me. C'mon, I'll help you find something really great."

It took only four outfit changes, but eventually Rachel settled on a skirt-and-top combo that did not make her feel like she looked twelve. Maura's impeccable makeup job didn't hurt either, and some sort of excessively fancy gel smoothed out the frizz in her hair. Still, it was always a little hard not feeling like the frump of the suite: Stacey had long legs and a perfect chin, Amber was the cute blonde personified, and Maura was a knockout in every sense of the word.

Tonight, Maura was wearing a short, red sleeveless dress which perfectly accentuated every part of her figure, leaving very little to the imagination. Providing a slight edge was the classiest black leather jacket Rachel had ever seen, matching the color of Maura's impressively high heels. Rolling up to the club in Maura's Mercedes-Benz only added to the glamour, and Rachel found herself wondering if this was how Jane always felt when she was on Maura's arm.

Heads turned as soon as they walked inside, and Rachel couldn't blame them—Maura was every woman's type; she fell into each bracket: cute, pretty, gorgeous, sexy. All she had to do was smile a certain way or scrunch her features for a second or flip her hair over her shoulder and a different adjective came to mind. She was truly a fascinating creature to observe, and Rachel had to keep reminding herself that not only was _she _the one here with Maura at the moment, but that she actually slept in the same room as her on a regular basis. It was almost weird to see her roommate get ogled so much and so blatantly by other women.

"This is okay, right?" Rachel asked as they sat down on some stools by the bar.

"What is?" Maura asked innocently, shrugging off her jacket.

"Um…well, I just feel like if Jane was here, she'd be kicking the asses of these other women for looking at you like this."

Maura smiled. "Oh, Jane's not the jealous type."

"Really? What was that pissing contest with Danny about earlier in the year, then?"

"I should rephrase that. She's not jealous so long as things don't go beyond looking. And besides, her pointed remarks and actions towards Danny weren't a result of jealousy; they came as a consequence of a sort of… well, 'ownership' sounds so Neanderthal, but it's fitting. She thought Danny was a skeeze, and not entirely incorrectly."

"So…what," Rachel said. "She wouldn't have a problem walking in here and seeing you dancing over here with a bunch of other women?"

Maura's grin widened. "I don't know. Let's see."

She stood up and motioned for Rachel to come with her, but after a few moments of awkward dancing that would've made Elaine Benes look good, she quickly returned to their tiny table just to watch her roommate. Maura was a natural and was clearly just there to have a good time, not dancing with any singular person and also managing not to get overwhelmingly sensual, either.

"Friend of yours?"

Rachel turned when she noticed a redheaded woman was now leaning over Maura's empty seat, bottle in hand. "Uh—she's my roommate."

"Nice, nice. Where do you go to school?"

"BCU."

"Cool. Like it there?"

"I guess."

The woman nodded at Maura. "She seeing anyone?"

"Um…I think so. I mean yeah, she is."

"You don't seem too sure about that," the woman chuckled.

"Well—yeah, she's taken."

"Her girlfriend here?"

"Uh, she should be soon. Any minute now. She's tough, too. Scary. I'd keep an eye out, if I were you."

It wasn't until the woman had walked away that it occurred to Rachel it might have behooved her to have tried some flirting of her own. Then it also occurred to her that her nerves probably wouldn't survive the night if she didn't somehow sneak enough alcohol to keep words like "behoove" from making their way into her mind. Just as she was thinking this, someone nudged her shoulder from behind, holding an amber-colored bottle. Rachel turned to see Jane smirking down at her.

"I thought you didn't drink," Rachel said.

Setting herself down in Maura's seat, Jane opened the lid to her own bottle and said "Cream soda," before chugging some of it down. "Maura likes the way it looks when I drink out of a bottle," she added, shrugging as if this was an odd thing to find attractive.

But Rachel totally understood it.

As much effort as Maura put in to making herself look good and glamorous, there was always a sense of effortless sexiness when it came to Jane. She was more earthy, more physical than Maura, in a way that Rachel couldn't quite explain. Her dark curls were currently pulled back into a high ponytail, leaving her exquisite facial structure on fully display, highlighted by smoky eyes and sharp cheekbones. Looking at her, Rachel understood what Maura had meant about women being attracted to women who looked comfortable: while not in totally casual dress, Jane was clearly at ease in the designer jeans Maura had bought for her, along with black leather boots and a ribbed gray tank top that was beneath a tight blue sweater.

"Look at her," Jane chuckled, having long caught Maura's eye.

"She wants you to join her," Rachel said needlessly.

"Yeah, but I wanna help you first," Jane said.

"You don't mind those other women?" Rachel asked, finding it hard to believe that Jane didn't appear jealous at the way some of the other patrons were dancing near Maura.

Jane shrugged. "I'd be worried if Maura and I were having trouble, but I know those women don't have a chance with her. I'm hers and she's all mine."

"That's…nice."

"Yeah, it is. Anyway, let's focus on you. See that blonde, about 2:00, at the end of the bar? She's totally checking you out."

"What? _Me? _No way."

"Way. In fact, I think I should probably move, so she'll feel a little more comfortable talking to you."

"I um, I don't think that's a very good idea."

"Sure it is! Just let her do the talking. Look over at her and give her a little encouragement, y'know, like a nod or a smile or something. And if she asks why you've got a cream soda, tell her you're a designated driver for the night. Some women really dig the whole responsibility thing."

"Responsible?" Rachel groaned. "Isn't that like, dorky?"

"I don't drink," Jane said. "Do I look like a dork to you?"

"No, I just meant—"

"Dude, it's all in how you spin it. Be confident. Be in control. Being the designated driver means you're looking out for your friends. That's sexy. Own it! Now if you don't mind, I've got a little girlfriending to do."

Winking at Rachel, Jane pulled off her sweater, leaving her only in the form-fitting tank top. The loud music easily drowned out Rachel's soft moan at the sight of arms she had been admiring for so long. Again she was distinctly aware of the fact that hers were not the only eyes following Jane as she sauntered into the crowd of dancing women, immediately going for Maura.

"Took you long enough," Maura chuckled, turning and pressing her back into Jane.

Jane's hands rested on Maura's waist, steadying them in their usual position: she basically stayed still, swaying and grinding only when she felt it was necessary, letting Maura do most of the work. "Yeah, well," she said, kissing Maura's neck. "I wanted to make sure Rach was okay."

"She's nervous, yeah," Maura agreed. "Wasn't sure she has what it takes to make women go weak at the knees. I knew if she came with us and saw you, she'd be seeing the master at work."

Maura grinned as she felt Jane laugh against her neck. "You make it so damn easy," she whispered.

They didn't speak for the next several minutes, preferring dance as their mode of communication. Even surrounded by other people, it was hard not to loosen up a bit when someone like Maura Isles was grinding her ass into you, and Jane moved smoothly against her. It had been hot enough inside already, but Maura thought she might have been on fire as she felt Jane's hot breath against her neck and shoulder, often interrupted by short or long kisses. She reached on arm up and around Jane's neck, keeping her close, loving how this felt. A moment later, she took one of Jane's hands and used it to twirl herself around once, twice, then a third time.

On the last one, Jane stopped Maura mid-twirl so that they were facing each other, and she took the few steps necessary to walk Maura up against the nearest wall. The moment Maura's back hit the brick, Jane moved in for a rough kiss, hands bunching up the material at Maura's hips. When one of Maura's legs hooked around her own, Jane found herself grabbing it at the thigh, eliciting a moan from Maura that she could feel more than hear.

This was something she knew she would never get tired of.

"Hey."

The new voice jarred Rachel out of the reverie she had been in. She'd seen Jane and Maura kiss before, but never this intimately, this intensely. It was as though they were the only people in the room, and they clearly weren't doing this for show. To be frank, Rachel had felt almost like a pervert for watching, but it had been hard to tear away her gaze until someone sat next to her.

It was the blonde from the bar who Jane had pointed out earlier. She tipped a bottle at Rachel and winked. "How _you _doin'?"


	11. Experienced Gurus and Other Lovers

**A/N**: So after all this angst in the western, I decided I needed a fluff break. And by fluff, I mean a little more intense than fluff. The end of this chapter sort of just happened. Also, to those of you who pointed it out last chapter, I had Joey Tribbiani in my head when I wrote that last line. I just couldn't help it! Rachel needed to get hit on by someone cheesy, although that storyline isn't really brought up again in this chapter. But it can be soon.

* * *

><p>"So if it's given that this angle is sixty degrees, and the… the angle on the line outside the other end of the triangle is a hundred and fifty degrees, that means… this one's thirty," Jane muttered, scrutinizing her math book carefully. "And—so, wait. That means the last angle would have to be ninety."<p>

"Yeah."

"But that'd make it a right triangle."

"Yeah."

"But it doesn't _look _like a ninety-degree angle! I couldn't draw a box in there!"

The raspy, wearied laugh of her classmate only added to Jane's frustration. "Dude, come on! Didn't you take geometry in high school? It doesn't have to _look_ like a right angle to _be_ a right angle, bogus as that sounds."

"I freakin' _hate _math," Jane grumbled, tossing her pencil to the other side of the room. As luck would have it, her cell phone rang just then, prompting a relieved, "Oh, thank _God_." She flipped it open. "Bless you, and have I told you lately how much I love you?"

"Define 'lately,'" Maura chuckled. "You're done with classes for the day, aren't you?"

"Yeah, I'm just studying with a friend. Big math test coming up."

"Oh. Anyone I know?"

"On the test?"

"Your study friend. Oh! 'Study buddy!'" Maura laughed, recalling a phrase she had heard Stacey use.

"Um, no, I don't think you've met. Her name's Riley," Jane said, her eyes darting briefly to Riley, who smirked at the sound of her name. "Yeah, she's some dumbass senior who's stuck in moron math with me."

"Hey, shut up!" Riley laughed, smacking Jane's head.

Maura waited for the laughter on the other end of the line to subside before she spoke again. "Can you still come to look at our sink?"

"I'm planning on it, yeah. I've got some tools in my bag just in case I'll need 'em."

"Great! Can you come over right now?"

"What? Maura!"

"My favorite professor is doing a special lecture for people interested in forensic criminology. I thought it was tomorrow, but I got the date wrong, and it starts in an hour. I really don't want to miss it, and I really don't want to miss you, either."

"Well can't I just come over when you're done?"

"You said you had to watch your brothers tonight. Make sure they don't try to sneak cigarettes into the basement again while your parents are out of town?"

Jane sighed heavily. "Oh yeah, I forgot about the twerps."

"Good thing I pay such close attention to your life. Now can you come over?"

"Sure, why not?" Jane sighed again, shutting her book. "It's not like I was gonna get anywhere with this anyway. I'll be there as soon as I can."

"Wonderful! Did I mention I've got some fluff for you?"

"Ooh," Jane growled. "In that case, your wish is my command."

"And you know Stacey's a math major, right? So if you still want to study when you get here, I'm sure she would be happy to help you with anything I don't have time to go over with you."

Jane laughed uneasily. The last thing she needed right now was a certified genius like Maura or someone majoring in math to see how much she was struggling with basic problems. "Yeah, maybe. See you in a bit, babe."

"Bye!"

Smiling at the chirp in Maura's tone, Jane stowed the phone back in her pocket and apologized to Riley. "Sorry about that," she sighed.

"No big. What's up?"

"That was my girlfriend. Plumbing emergency."

"Ah." As their friendship was pretty new, there had never been explicit talk between the two of them over whether or not the other was gay—but they had come to a sort of tacit, mutual understanding that they played for the same team. Nodding at Jane's backpack, Riley asked, "So is that a plumbing tool I saw in there earlier?"

Jane pulled it open, bringing the tool out so she could cram her textbook back in the bag. "What, this? Yeah, it's an auger."

A crooked, almost intimidating grin split on Riley's face, aided by a glint in her eye. "Oh. I thought it was maybe some kind of weird sex toy or something."

"Nah, that's not really my thing," Jane muttered, getting her things together and standing up quickly.

Riley got to her feet as well, shrugging. "Hey, if you're vanilla, that's cool. No worries. I didn't want to make you feel weird, dude." They stood awkwardly by the couch for a moment before Riley's half-smile returned, and she nodded towards her bedroom. "I've got a drawer full of some if you ever wanna try any out, though."

"Didn't you just say you didn't want to make me feel weird?" Jane asked, trying to sound cool but only coming off as rather nervous-sounding.

"Yeah, I'm sorry," Riley said, giving her head a shake. "I've just been a little… hey, where's your girlfriend live? Can I give you a ride?"

"Uh… sure," Jane said slowly, not wanting to be rude by turning down the offer. She really could stand to make some new friends at school. "She's in the freshmen dorms at BCU."

"Wow, BCU," Riley said, sounding impressed. She led the way out of her apartment and back down to the street. "That's pretty awesome. What's she studying?"

"She wants to be a medical examiner," Jane answered, unable to keep a hint of pride out of her voice, which Riley couldn't help grinning at.

They had reached a ramshackle old jeep, one window of which appeared to be half-covered in duct tape. After informing Jane that the window on the passenger's side was permanently stuck partway down, Riley got in and revved up the car. "So, a medical examiner, huh?" she asked, pulling onto the street. "So like a doctor? Never would've thought you'd go for a geek, Jane."

Although her tone was merely teasing, Jane said, "Hey, she's not a geek! I mean, okay, she's sort of a geek. But a cute geek! A super hot geek, in fact. A well-dressed, well-mannered, real lady of a sexy geek."

"Whoa there, bucko!" Riley laughed. She flipped down the sun visor, and a pack of gum fell into her lap. With another laugh, she took her eyes off the road to get out one stick for herself and toss another to Jane. "I've gotta meet this girl, make sure you really deserve her!"

"Ha, ha," Jane muttered, unwrapping the gum. "Come on in with me; I'm sure she wouldn't mind."

"How long have you guys been going out?"

"Actually we celebrated three years just a few weeks ago."

Riley whistled. "Wow, for real? So you guys are like high school sweethearts?"

"Yeah."

"Nice. It isn't a problem that you're like, going to different schools, and not living at home under your parents' watch anymore?"

Jane cleared her throat awkwardly. In a bid to seem cool to her older, independent classmate, Jane had yet to tell Riley that she did actually still live at home. "Uh, no. It's not a problem. We're good. We're great."

There was silence for a few moments, and Riley absently flipped the radio on to a classic rock station. "Man, I just don't get it," she said after a while.

"What, Zeppelin?" Jane asked in disbelief, in regards to the music practically blasting out of the car radio. "What's not to get it? It's like, God… playing with Jesus."

"Nah, I mean sleeping with one girl!" Riley laughed, and Jane went silent. "Dude, you're young. And as a totally objective party, you're really hot. You could be getting laid left and right, y'know? Look, if you're ever interested, I've got some friends who are sort of getting into experimentation and would be totally discreet."

"Um, thanks, but no thanks," Jane said. "I'm a one-woman girl."

Stealing a glance at Riley, Jane could tell the girl was only placating her when she said, "Aw, well, that's sweet I guess." _Very high school, but sweet. Maybe she'll grow out of it soon. _They drove in a bit of an awkward silence for a while, both of them eventually falling into the same rhythmic head-banging. Eventually, Riley asked, "How'd you do with the adjustment? I mean, if you guys have been dating for three years, people were probably cool with your relationship in high school, right? Your roommates been cool about it?"

"Oh, yeah," Jane said. "Really cool. Mine, um… I actually knew them all in high school, so—so they already knew, and that's cool. Maura's have all been really awesome about it, too."

"Wow. How many roommates does she have?"

"Three. One of them's dating my best friend, actually. They—Maura's roommates—really love playing dress up with me, though. Halloween was interesting."

"Ha! I bet. You're lucky, you know. It took me a while to find a roomie who could accept me for who I was." She glanced over at Jane. "A sexual maniac."

They shared a laugh at that, so it was with relatively good spirits that they reached BCU's campus. Jane directed Riley to parking closest to Maura's building, and they turned quite a few heads as they got out and started walking. Jane visited enough that she was familiar at least by sight to a number of people, and she was unknowingly the object of many a brief, private fantasy. Throwing Riley into the mix led to an unprecedented level of squared, sophisticated swagger.

Jane felt good, she felt cool, walking next to Riley. Sure maybe she was a little crass, but she at least seemed to have taken a genuine liking to Jane. And even if they clearly shared different outlooks on relationships, Jane couldn't help thinking it would be nice having a gay friend to talk to once in a while. It wasn't something that had ever really bothered her in high school, especially once she had started dating Maura, but now the prospect of having one was sort of exciting. Just another reminder that Jane wasn't alone.

Maura flung open the door when Jane knocked a few moments later, and she raised her eyes upon seeing Riley there. "Oh!"

"Hey babe," Jane said, walking in. "This is Riley Cooper, math classmate. She gave me a ride."

"Hey," Riley said, giving Maura a nod.

"Pleasure to meet you," Maura said, holding out a hand for Riley to shake. Shooting an amused look at Jane, Riley shook Maura's hand but said nothing. "I have to say, it's certainly nice of someone to have taken on the task of trying to help Jane apply herself in mathematics. She can be quite stubborn." Before Riley had a chance to respond to this, Maura glanced down at Riley's tattooed arm and gasped softly. "Ooh! A female koi fish!"

Riley's grin was now genuine, not condescending. "Wow! How cool that you knew that."

"They symbolize independence and freedom," Maura explained to Jane, who did not look particularly happy with the way her girlfriend was feeling up this other girl's arm.

"Right. Unlike your Boy Scout of a girlfriend, I can't stay tied down to one girl," Riley said, winking at Jane and giving her a gentle nudge.

A new voice joined the conversation: "Wow, are you _all _lesbos?"

Jane and Riley looked over at the couch, where Stacey was sitting with her boyfriend Jack and one of their classmates, the girl who had just spoken. Stacey twisted around to apologetically say, "You'll have to excuse Natalie, here. She doesn't mean anything personal. Just no filter."

"I didn't mean it offensively," Natalie said lightly. "I'm just honestly curious."

"About what?" Jane asked, ignoring Stacey's head-shake of warning.

Natalie shrugged. "What the hell girls sees in other girls. Don't get me wrong, I have plenty of gay friends," she said quickly, cuing a wearied exchanged glance between Riley and Jane, "but I just like, don't get it."

"Honey, with that attitude, there's bound to be plenty you don't get," Riley said, her voice dripping with fake sweetness. "With the proper accessories, there's nothing dudes have that girls don't have in abundance." She smirked. "And we get to choose the length and width of that accessory, too."

A little put off by Riley's phraseology, Natalie frowned. "Well… what about, like… I dunno, something like biceps? I mean sure, a girl could be _toned, _I guess, but the basic musculature is totally different, right?"

"Oh God, no!" Stacey groaned. "No, no! If I have to hear one more of Maura's detailed lectures about how hot Jane's musculature is, I will _kill myself._"

Maura's jaw dropped. "I don't give _lectures _about it!"

Stacey raised her voice loud enough for Amber, who was behind her closed bedroom door, to hear: "Yo, Amber!"

"What?" she yelled back.

"Musculature!"

There was a brief pause. Then, "Is Jane here?"

Stacey gave Maura a look which clearly said _I rest my case_, and Jane could barely contain a smirk. "Wow, you talk about my body to your roommates?"

"And why wouldn't she?" Riley asked. "C'mon, Jane, flex for the non-believer over here."

Jane sighed, but soon found herself rolling up one of the sleeves of her blue plaid shirt. She had never cared for being an exhibitionist, but Maura had been gently encouraging her to wear a little less now and then, to be more at ease with her body. The lack of layers sort of went against instinct now that the weather was becoming decidedly winter-like, but Jane didn't get cold easily, and there was no tank-top beneath her low-collared shirt.

To join the fun, Riley shrugged off her jacket and tossed it on top of Jane's backpack in the corner. She held her arm up to Jane's and flexed it as well, smirking as Jane appeared to be trying to size them up and see whose was (as Maura might have said) more aesthetically appealing.

"What else ya got?" Riley asked Natalie.

"What about abs?"

Riley popped her gum loudly and ripped her vest open, revealing nothing beneath it but a dark blue sports bra and an abdomen that was not altogether unpleasant to look at. All gazes were then directed at Jane, who rolled her eyes at Maura, who tried to do her best to look impassive. Sighing gruffly, Jane stuck one hand in her back pocket and used the other to lift up the hem of her shirt, partially exposing abs everyone else in the room (but Maura) had assumed were only conceivable with the help of Photoshop.

"Pecs? Pecs," Natalie offered, first sounding questioning, and then somber.

"Mmm, _that's _true, I guess," Riley said, unbothered. "But no matter how hard a guy works to bulk his up, you wouldn't ever be able to motorboat 'em."

"To what?" Natalie asked, as Jack casually folded his legs.

"You know," Riley said with a catlike grin. She nodded at Jane, then glanced at Maura's chest, her bottom lip between her teeth. "Say these two are gettin' it on, and Jane just kinda gets her face all up in that amazing rack and—"

"Whoa, hey!" Jane said fiercely, all traces of embarrassed amusement gone. She was briefly torn between wanting to stay cool and yet letting Riley know she had crossed a line. "Game ends now, Riley."

Still looking unruffled, Riley shrugged, and without bothering to button up her vest again, leaned over to pick up her jacket. Pulling it on, she asked, "Any of that answer your question, Natalie?" Instead of waiting for a reply, Riley gave Jane a semi-apologetic look, said goodbye to Maura, and headed out the door.

Stacey spoke up for Natalie, looking thoughtful. "Yeah, why am I straight again?"

"Hey!" Jack protested. "Because you've got me!"

"Because…"

"Because we both liked _The Brave Little Toaster_."

"Oh, right!"

Maura looked confused. "What constitutes bravery in a toaster?"

"It's a kids' movie, Maura," Stacey explained.

"About anthropomorphic kitchen equipment?"

Jane rolled her eyes again, foreseeing a long conversation about yet another childhood movie Maura had missed out on. "I'm gonna use your bathroom," she muttered, walking past Maura. "Then I'll take a look at your sink."

Once she had disappeared behind the door, Stacey looked at Natalie and said, "Well! I think we're all done here."

"But there are still two pages in the packet left to go over."

"Yeah, um, I don't have time for that," Stacey said. "Those first few problems took way longer than I thought, and Jack and I have got plans." She stood up, ushering Natalie out the door.

"We've got plans?" Jack asked, once Natalie was gone.

"Um, yeah. To finish the last two pages of this packet." Stacey turned to look at Maura, who appeared a little confused. "Hey, Maura. Sorry about Natalie—she's really smart when it comes to calculus, but she can be a total moron when it comes to social skills."

"_I'm_ a total moron when it comes to social skills!" Maura cried, looking worried that one day Stacey would use this as an excuse to exclude her.

"Yeah, but with you it's cute," Stacey explained. "With Natalie, it's rude. Obnoxious. She shouldn't have gotten Jane and that girl started, it was uncalled for." She frowned thoughtfully. "Or maybe you really _should _just be grateful you're so pretty."

This didn't do much to ease Maura's mind, and when Jane came out of the bathroom, she walked over and led Jane by the hand to her bedroom. Quietly she shut the door behind them, and Jane, clearly in a glum mood, sank onto the edge of Maura's bed. "So! Your friend Riley."

"Yeah," Jane mumbled. "I don't actually know her that well, really."

"No?"

"No. I'm just…well, y'know." Her eyes were fixed on the floor, and she started kneading her hands. "I haven't been making friends at school really," she said, getting the words quickly. "I mean, being at home and close to the people I went to high school with has sort of made me, well… I dunno, I sort of fall back on that. I wanted to try and make a new friend, and Riley's been pretty cool. She's never come onto me or anything though," she hurriedly added, looking up at Maura.

Maura just laughed and sat next to her. "Well, of course not! She clearly perceives herself as an alpha type, and sees many of her own qualities reflected in you."

"What? You're talking crazy, Maura." Thinking of Riley's sex toy collection, she insisted, "We're nothing alike, butch factor notwithstanding."

"She certainly did seem a little more sexually experienced than you," Maura said. When this elicited no response, Maura looked over at Jane, whose eyes were staring at the floor again. "I think she made some good points," Maura continued softly. She maneuvered herself so that she was straddling Jane on the edge of the bed, and gently brought Jane's hands to rest on the small of her back. "How's that?" she murmured.

Jane's hand shifted downwards to cup Maura's backside and bring her a little closer. "Good," she said quietly.

Maura smiled encouragingly, but Jane missed it, as her eyes were currently fixated on the cleavage offered to her by the cut of Maura's lavender cardigan. "I think spending time with Riley could be good for you," Maura whispered, her hands curling around Jane's neck.

That got Jane to meet her gaze. "Yeah?"

"Yes," Maura hummed, rolling her hips almost imperceptibly. "How would you like to try some motor-yachting?"

Jane's throat was almost too dry to laugh. "It's motor_boat_, Maura, not motor-_yacht_."

"Tomato, to-mah-toe," Maura said.

A few moments later, she would not have the willpower or presence of mind to try and be funny.

Jane's lips were gentle and hesitant as they traversed from Maura's jaw down to the tops of her breasts. She paused, and Maura's hands tightly wound themselves into Jane's hair, her hips starting to roll a little more anxiously. Jane felt a swell of confidence and excitement, spurred on when Maura's grip pushed her closer. Jane's eyes closed and she was surrounded by beautifully soft skin, her nose and mouth buried in Maura's spectacular breasts. Jane took a shuddering breath, and Maura gasped, letting out a repressed whimper at the feel of Jane's breathy groan.

_Time to kick this into high gear_, Jane thought , one hand shifting up to hold Maura's upper back steady.

But then there was a knock on the door, and it opened suddenly. Rachel was standing there on the phone, and it took her a moment to realize what she had just walked in on. The giddy look her face was instantly, almost comically replaced by one of intense mortification and she turned bright red. In turning to look at her, Maura had nearly fallen off the bed, and only barely managed to land on her feet (still a remarkable effort, considering how weak her legs felt).

The door snapped shut, leaving them alone again, and Maura quickly glanced back at Jane, who was preparing to stand up. "No," Maura said plaintively, pushing Jane's shoulder down and straddling her once more.

"Maura…"

"Jane."

"Just wait, just for a second," Jane said. "Riley, and that girl—Stacey's classmate, I just …I really wanted to tell her, tell them both, that even though I love your body and even though just the thought of a dick makes me freak out, that's not why I chose to be in a relationship with you. It's not why I'm in love with you."

"I know," Maura said. "But physicality is still important in a relationship, Jane. Please."

"Rachel kinda killed it, though…"

"Don't use that as an excuse! Jane, come on, we aren't in high school anymore."

"What's that supposed to mean?"

"I need _more_. I need you to be less inhibited."

Jane swallowed hard, looking defiant. "What's this about?"

Now looking scared and uncertain, Maura said, "I don't know. I just—I _know _you love me, Jane, but it's hard sometimes not feeling …well, _wanted_. Desired."

"Desired?" Jane asked, her voice lower than before. "You don't think I desire you?"

Maura carefully searched Jane's face, noting the darkening of her eyes. _A sign of arousal_. "Do you?"

Jane stood up abruptly, and Maura stumbled to the floor for the second time in so many minutes. Before she could get disappointed, though, Jane had backed her up against the door of the room, firmly locking it and pushing herself hard against Maura. There was no time, air, or cognizance for smart remarks or sarcasm; Maura's breathless gasps were a sharp contrast to Jane's heavy panting.

"No," Jane managed to choke out when she felt Maura's thighs squeezing one of her legs. "My turn, Maura."

She gasped sharply when Maura slid a hand between them, and Jane faltered. Her teeth clenched to hold in any noises Maura's roommates might overhear, but she could not stifle a few more gasps as Maura wordlessly removed her hand, instead stretching out a leg for Jane to move frantically, thoughtlessly against.

"Oh, God," Maura said breathlessly, her hands curling tightly again in Jane's hair.

Jane couldn't find the breath for words, kissing her way back down to Maura's breasts as she rubbed harder. This was unreal in its intensity; heat was closing in on all sides, breaking down every wall Jane had nervously, perhaps childishly put up. Maura had been on the receiving end of this kind of pleasure more than once, usually alone, but nothing she had experienced thus far could quite compete with the knowledge of what she was doing to Jane in this moment. Everything was building, and with a few whispered words of encouragement from Maura, Jane pushed herself harder, bearing down more.

And just when Maura thought they were really just getting started when Jane let out a low moan and slumped against her. "Jane?" she whispered nervously.

"Sh, sh." Jane lifted her head enough to offer Maura a soft kiss. "Mm." Maybe just a few more. She was waiting for her heat rate to go down, gently kissing Maura until she felt like she could think clearly again. To say the least, riding Maura's leg had been an exhilarating peek into what the future held in store for them, as Jane knew for certain that the euphoria she had experienced just now would be dwarfed by the high she got when she and Maura decided to take that last step.

Meanwhile, Maura was full of questions she didn't know how to phrase. "Jane, did you…?"

Jane chose not to guess what the intended inquiry had been, deciding instead to make her own: "Do you doubt me, Maura?"

"No."

"I may not be able to list all the scientific names for your body parts, but that doesn't mean I don't think about them all the time." She kissed Maura's forehead. "I think you're amazing, I think everything _about _you is amazing. I look at you, and I… I can't picture ever being with anyone else."

The unspoken "can you?" hung between them for what felt like several long minutes. Maura's heart swelled with the pure honesty and untested innocence in Jane's voice. Maura wished she was the type of person who could just respond to things without thinking, so she could reassure Jane without pause, but her mind would not be denied the opportunity to mull things over. They were both so young. _Could _she picture ever being with anyone else? She had dated before, but never been in a relationship before Jane. And it was so much more fulfilling than she could have imagined.

She could not picture someone being more understanding of her than Jane. She could not picture someone who could anticipate her needs better, who could accept her faults better, who could make her laugh more and feel loved more than Jane Rizzoli. She could not wrap her head around a Jane-less future. Her arms tightened slightly around Jane's shoulders.

Neither of them was sure how long the silence had lasted before Maura truthfully said, "Neither can I."

* * *

><p><strong>AN**: I kind of like the idea of playing around with Riley in this story, and where that could go. Thanks for being patient with me about updates, guys!  
>Oh, and about the sex thing. Remember I said this was gonna be more like Boy Meets World, less like Degrassi :) ...not that I'm totally planning on paraphrasing Cory's speech to his mom about loveTopanga for Jane to give Angela...


End file.
